Ice Cold
by Wartermehloan
Summary: Clary and Jace have been going to the same school for years now but have never really talked. Will a school geography trip to the mountains of Iceland change things between them? In the midst of a disaster bigger than both of them, will they be drawn together or torn apart? CLACE
1. Chapter 1

**Hey. I'm new to the TMI fan fiction realm and haven't actually read all that much so I haven't really got the just yet of what everyone's into. But this idea sprung to mind and I started it so... yeah.**

**Please let me know what you think? :D**

**(Note, this chapter is quite short since it's the first one - sorry)**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold.<strong>

**1**

Clary Morgernstern walked quickly, trying to grip all her school files on top of her art stuff. But her small arms weren't making it all that easy and bits of paper were flying everywhere as she hurried into the schools main doors and down the halls to her locker. She shoved everything haphazardly inside and sprinted down the long, white corridors to homeroom.

She opened the door, panting hard and looked at the teacher apologetically. Mr. Newman stopped talking upon hearing the door opening to see Clary standing there. He gave her a stern look but then gestured for her to sit down before continuing his speech. Clary being late wasn't anything he wasn't used to.

Clary nodded her thanks and quickly made her way to the empty seat next to Simon.

"Hi." He whispered to her as she sat down heavily next to him with a large grin on his face.

"Hey," She greeted, still out of breath, "What's he talking about?"

Simon's grin widened and he slid over a sheet that was on his desk towards her. Clary took the sheet and looked at him, confused.

"Just read it." He whispered.

Clary looked down and recognised it as a parent permission slip and suddenly got excited. She started to read the text at the top.

_Dear Parent or Gaurdian,_

_We are delighted to be offering your child along with the rest of the junior year to this years juniors geography trip to a two week action-packed adventure to Iceland. Involving hikes through the Icelandic mountains, going for swims in the volcanic hot springs, and a chance to see the Northern Lights._

_This will be taking place from the 17th to the 24th of December._

Clary turned to Simon and grinned manically. She had completely forgotten about the junior geography trip they did each year. Last year's juniors went to Morocco, they all had said it was the best they had ever gone on.

She squealed quietly, just loud enough for Simon to hear. The 10th of December was just a month away. They must've been really disorganised with planning it or something, they usually hand out the permission slips like a four months earlier.

"Have you ever been to Iceland?" Simon asked, Clary just gave him a look, "Oh yeah, I forgot you haven't been outside the states." He added thoughtfully. "You have to go, Clary. Rebecca went to Iceland with her boyfriend when they went travelling around Europe, she said it was the most amazing place she's ever been."

"Of corse I want to go! I just need to-" She cut herself off when her eyes had landed on the price of the trip at the bottom of the slip. _Six hundred and twenty five dollars!?_ "Oh."

"What?" Simon asked.

"Look how much it costs." Clary said worriedly. Simon looked down to the bottom of the slip and then back up to her, she looked visibly upset. "Valentine's never going to sign for that."

Simon sat back in his chair, finally catching on. "Oh… well… You could just try. There's no harm in trying right?" He said optimistically, his tone going slightly higher.

"Yeah, I guess." Clary nodded, "No harm in trying."

"Morgernstern!" Both their heads snapped up to the teacher, "I want you back here after school. First you're late and now you're talking over me. That is unacceptable and, quite frankly, plain disrespectful!"

Clary quickly shut her mouth that was agape as she knew it would only make it worse to question it.

Mr. Newman was a short grumpy man in his mid-fifties who had had a personal hatred against Clary since her freshman year when she had walked into him in the corridor when he was holding a bunch of papers and a scalding hot coffee. He had dropped the papers and had made her pick them up amidst the sea of teenagers scrambling to get to their lessons in the hallway (she was the one who had just got the coffee all down her front, burning her stomach and he was the one to still hold a grudge?!).

"Yes, Mr. Newman." Clary muttered.

"What was that Mogernstern?" Newman asked, putting a hand to his ear.

"I said yes Mr. Newman." Clary snapped. She regretted it immediately.

"Right, that's it you're coming back tomorrow as well for impudent behaviour."

Clary let her mouth hang this time in disbelief. "What?! I didn't do anything!" She gaped incredulously.

"Make that until Friday. Not a great start to the week Ms. Morgan." Newman fired.

Clary was about to voice more of her thoughts on the matter when she heard Simon hiss, "Shut up before he files a beheading or something."

Clary could barely look at him before the bell rung and she was out of her seat, leaving the classroom with Simon right by her side.

"Ugh! I cannot believe him!" She ranted, "I can't believe he still hates me this much after the whole coffee thing. He's got his head so far up his ass that he thinks he's better than everyone. He's not even a good teacher! I've had history with him for four years and I haven't learned anything. Being taught by him makes you no wiser, like when learning to play the bagpipes, they sound exactly the same when you have finished learning them as when you started."

"How would you know? I happen to be a pretty good bagpipe…er." Simon smiled.

Clary laughed, "I would love to see you play the bagpipe." She grinned at the thought, "Walking around in a little kilt thing."

Simon grimaced. "Why is it they always walk when they play? You would think minimal movement would be required when wearing plaid skirts in the Scottish highlands."

Clary grinned, "To get away from the noise."

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><p>The rest of the day went pretty slowly. Like, painfully slowly. After school, Newman couldn't even have just given her a detention, oh no. He sent her to the pre-school across the street to help some of the kids there with their reading. It's not like she hated kids exactly, but it was the last thing she needed on a monday on top of all the junior work load that she was starting to stress out about.<p>

But she was on her way home now, the geography permission slip clutched tightly in her grasp.

She never felt all that safe where she lived. The neighbourhood in Brooklyn was known for being a criminal hotspot. There were always muggings and there had been at least two shootings in Clary's time.

She opened the door to her small two bedroom, worn-down house and walked straight to the living room where she knew her dad would be, watching the news and drinking a bottle of Stella Artois. He was.

"Valentine?" Clary asked.

Her father flickered his gaze up at her, "What'd you want?"

His gaze remained on the small screen two metres in front of him."Can you sign a slip for me?" Clary asked.

"What for?" He asked.

"Nothing much." Clary said nonchalantly, twirling her hair nervously, "Just some stupid geography trip."

Valentine looked up at her, studying her sceptically. When he gestured for her to pass the slip, Clary could feel her heart beat as she watched him take out a pen and start to sign at the bottom. He was halfway through signing it when his gaze flickered to the price in the small print. "You got the money?" He asked gruffly.

Clary's hair twirling intensified, twisting the tips into nots. "Umm… I was hoping maybe -"

"It's not me going on the trip. I ain't bloody paying for it." Valentine grunted, crumpling the slip into a ball and throwing it half-heartedly at Clary. Clary watched it fall to her feet and picked it up quickly. Valentine's gaze had gone back to the small satellite TV and she knew she had lost his attention.

"I've got two hundred. I've been saving up for ages. I was wondering maybe I could borrow a few hundred and pay it back as soon as possible?" She scrambled for some sort of compromise.

Valentine merely glanced up at her and frowned in exasperation, "I said I ain't bloody paying for it! Now get out of my face before I -" He was cut off by the sound of Clary's phone ringing.

He rolled his eyes and continued to watch the TV while Clary turned and went down the small corridor to her room.

She picked her phone out her back pocket and looked down at the small Nokia. Simon's name was dancing across the screen and the phone was vibrating harshly in her hands. With a sigh, she answered the phone and flopped down onto her bed.

"Hey Si, whats up?"

_"Did he let you go?"_ His voice came through hopefully.

Clary took a deep breath, "No. He said he wasn't going to pay for it." She explained, "He wasn't ever going to say yes, I shouldn't have even bothered."

There was silence as they both tried to think up way's around it, Simons voice piped up, _"How much do you have?"_

"Two hundred dollars and twenty five cents."

_"Hmm…"_ Simon thought, _"What if we tried to raise some money?"_

Clary scoffed, "How?"

_"I dunno…"_ He trailed off, _"Maybe you could sell some of your art?"_

Clary frowned in thought. "No one's going to buy my art."

"_Sure they will."_ Simon said enthusiastically, suddenly excited. _"Clary, we live in New York. It's nearly Christmas. People will buy your stuff."_

"No," Clary said, "they really won't."

_"Not if you draw the right thing. You could set up one of those stalls that get people to sit down and then they draw them but pick out bits of their face that they're self conscious of and make it really big to insult them and people buy them but no one really know why."_

Clary thought for a second, "A caricature?" She asked.

_"Yeah! That's the one."_

Clary laughed. "Okay, that's actually not a half bad idea."

"_I'm full of half bad ideas."_ Simon said proudly. Clary imagined him puffing his chest out.

She laughed again, "I'll talk to you about it tomorrow?"

_"Okay, see ya."_

"See ya."

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><p><strong>AN. Sorry, not the most eventful chapter. I'm just trying to make the snowball to get it rolling at the moment. Btw, I'm english so please correct me If I don't use some American slang or if something I say isn't correct in American culture or something (especially my geography on New York).**

**Thanks for reading! Review? X**

_** -**__** 5 reviews: I'll update sometime this week**_

_** - **__**10 reviews: I'll update within the next day or two**_

_** -**__** 15 reviews: I'll update the same day.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! As promised, fifteen reviews and I would update the same day. And OMIGOSH! I was not expecting that much response! GThank you so much. And although I'm pretty sure most of the reviews were from the same person in anon (considering they were all written within two minutes...) I'm still very grateful. So thanks for all the kind feedback.**

**Shoutouts to** _TMI lover, anonymous, gms14, FanOfTheWrittenArt, TheRubyRed, Reemarie36, Liz399, ShadowAngel100, Guest, and all of the __anons (there are too many to write down) _**Thank you so much for supporting my story and reviewing. It really does mean a lot :D**

**Anyway, here is the next chapter.**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**2**

That Wednesday, Clary and Simon did their first caricature session. They set up in the nearest and busiest high street and - to Clary's surprise - actually made a good forty dollars out of it. Simon wasn't actually doing any of the drawing, he was there for moral support. Or how he liked to put it; 'eye candy to draw in the customers'.

"I can't believe we actually made forty dollars!" Simon exclaimed the next day. "If we keep going at this rate, we'll make three hundred dollars in days!" He pointed out for the tenth time in the last twenty four hours. "Are you still up for doing it again today after school?" He asked.

They had one more period left of the day. "Yeah. I've just got to do this stupid pre-school thing first." She groaned.

"Oh yeah," Simon acknowledged sympathetically. "I'll meet you where we set up yesterday?"

Clary nodded, "Yeah, I'll see you there."

She was not looking forward to her last period of history. It was the last subject she wanted at the end of any day. Especially since Newman taught it.

Making an effort to get there early, she opened the door to the classroom five minutes before the lesson started.

"This is unacceptable Lightwood!" She heard Mr. Newman bark as she pushed the door open. "You're staying back here after school. And you," He said, spinning around to see Clary opening the door. "Morgernstern, how dare you interrupt us without permission! You get to stay behind for the whole of next week as well." He fumed.

Clary's jaw went slack, "What the? I came early to avoid this!"

"Mr. Newman, don't you think that's a bit -"

"You too Lightwood!" Newman interrupted.

"What?!" Jace exclaimed.

"I would strongly suggest you shut your mouth Lightwood and you, Clarissa, pick your jaw up off of the God damned floor and go take a seat before another week is added."

Clary, absolutely fuming but knowing her protests would just make it worse, walked slowly to the very back of the classroom and took a seat as far away from Newman as she could get.

When the bell finally went off signalling the end of school, Clary hurried out of the classroom as soon as she possibly could. She only had to do an hour at the pre-school and the quicker she went, the quicker she could meet up with Simon.

"Clary!"

She was halfway down the hallway when she heard her name being called out. She turned around and saw Jace Lightwood running to try and catch up with her. Jace Lightwood?

When he caught up to her he was panting. "Newman said you knew what our detention was and where we had to go. He said to follow you."

Clary rolled her eyes and continued to walk down the hallway, "Yeah, well we're in for a real treat."

Jace walked along side. "Oh God, that bad huh?"

"We have to volunteer at the pre-school across the street."

Jace sighed, "I guess it was too much to wish for that Newman would just give us a normal detention in which we could actually get some work done."

"That's what I thought." Clary replied just as she caught the eye of one of her friends, Maia.

Her face looked thoroughly confused and her eyes were wide in disbelief as she looked from Jace and back to Clary in question. Clary smiled at how hilarious her expression was and made a hand gesture that told her she would explain later.

Clary and Jace weren't really in the same friendship group - to put it lightly. She was actually the one to show Jace around on his first day in middle school (they both went to the same one around the block). His parents had died that January and he had had to move to New York to live with his adoptive family, the Lightwoods. He would've been in the year above Clary, so a senior now, but he got held back a year after he had taken too much time out of school in mourning over his parents.

It's not that Clary didn't like Jace. She didn't really know him all that well. They hadn't really spoken at all after the day she had shown him round, and after all these years she had still only spoken to him when they got paired together in some science experiment or something - which wasn't often.

You could say they didn't really hang out with the same people. Jace was on the football team and friends with all those kinda people - which Clary was not. It also didn't help that his sister was on the cheerleading team. Let's just say that she didn't get on very well with the cheer captain, Kaelie, not since third grade at least. And therefore the cheer team didn't really get on with her very well.

Clary wasn't disliked by many (other than the cheerleaders). She had a few closer friends like Maia. But ever since Maia had started going out with Jordan (who was also on the football team), they hadn't really seen much of each other. They were still friendly with one another but not nearly as close as they once were. Simon, Maia and herself used to be a sort of trio. It was just her and Simon left now - which she didn't mind. Simon had been her best friend since first grade.

The teacher still had all the children sat down and listening to her talk when Clary and Jace arrived, so they waited in the doorway.

"What does the chicken give you kids?" The teacher at the front of the class asked.

"Meat!" The kids chanted.

"Very good! Now what type of meat does the pig give you?"

"Bacon!"

"Great! And what does the fat cow give you?"

"Homework!" Jace called out. All the kids turned in their seats to see Jace and Clary at the back, followed by the instantaneous eruption of howls of laughter from the children. Even the teacher chuckled a bit.

"You must be Jace." The teacher called over the laughter.

"Jace I am." He nodded.

"Newman told me you'd be coming." She explained, knowing Clary was going to be here since she'd been coming the last couple of days. "Class!" She called to settle her students, "This is Jace, he and Clary will be here another week to help you guys with your reading."

The kids all cheered and moved to get up. "Uh-uh." The teacher shook her head, "Stay in your seats and grab out your reading books. Clary and Jace will have time to read with all of you. Whether it be today or tomorrow."

The children all dug out their reading books and started reading to themselves quietly. The teacher walked up to Jace and Clary and held out her hand to Jace, "I'm Miss Burberry."

Jace shook it, "A pleasure." He smiled and Miss Burberry grinned widely. Clary rolled her eyes.

"Okay, well if you two could just go round the desks and help the children with pronunciation and general reading aloud, that'd be great, thanks."

Clary and Jace did as they were told and split up. Clary found a small boy who was sporting an intense look of concentration and confusion.

"Hey, mind if I sit?" Clary asked and the boy scooted over a little on the bench. "Do you want to read out loud for me?"

The boy looked shy but took a breath and started reading aloud, "Biff was ex… excited dat he was fi… fi - finally gunna -"

"Going to." Clary corrected softly.

"Going to go to da cinema. 'I ain't had no fun at all re… recently,' Biff ex… ex… exclaimed."

Miss Burberry had just walked passed and stopped next to the boy.

"Try it again."

"'I ain't had no fun at all recently,' Biff ex - exclaimed." The boy tried.

The teacher pursed her lips and turned to her class. "Kids, what would you say was wrong with this sentence?" She asked as she wrote on the blackboard _I ain't had no fun at all recently_. "How would you correct this?"

The class was silent for a moment when the boy next to Clary piped up innocently, "Get a boyfriend?"

Both Clary and Jace both threw a hand to cover their mouths as they gaped with wide eyes, trying to conceal their laughter. The kids didn't get it. The teacher laughed softly, " I mean, how would you correct the wording?"

An hour later, the kids were all aloud to go home and Jace and Clary stayed behind to help Miss Burberry clear up and left a few minutes later. As soon as they were out of earshot of Miss Burberry, they both bust into fits of laughter.

"Oh my God, that was hilarious." Clary laughed.

"I swear kids get away with everything. Imagine if one of us had said that to Newman?" Jace grinned.

Clary looked horrified, "I think he would just spontaneously combust." Jace laughed. "No seriously, I think he would do that thing where his whole face goes really red everywhere except his nose and then… poof." Jace laughed harder, knowing exactly what she meant.

"Or he would do that thing where the corner of his mouth twitches so violently it looks like its going to drop off and then…"

"Poof?" Clary finished.

"Poof."

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><p><strong>THE NEXT DAY<strong>

The fist thing Clary was aware of when she walked into Alicante High the next day was Maia pulling at her arm and pulling her aggressively to the side of the hallway.

"So!?" Maia exclaimed, looking at Clary expectantly.

Clary looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate, "So what?"

Maia rolled her eyes, and shook Clary's shoulder, "So why were you with the most good looking and most popular guy at Alicante and where did you go with him when you left?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Clary frowned, "Well I wouldn't say he was the _most_ good looking guy…" She trailed off and grinned when Maia nudged her with her elbow.

"You know that's not what I mean." She pushed.

Clary laughed, "Literally, we just got the same punishment from Newman to help out at the preschool."

Maia laughed, "Seriously?" She asked, "That's it?"

"Yeah, why?" Clary asked in question to Maia's exaggerated laughter.

"Kaelie saw you leave school with him." Maia explained.

Clary rolled her eyes, "Oh God, what now? She think I'm trying to 'take her boyfriend from her' or some bull like that?"

Maia shook her head, "There's no boyfriend to take from her. Jace broke up with her last weekend."

Clary's eyes flung open, "What! Why?"

Maia pursed her lips, Clary knew she probably shouldn't be telling her this. Maia wasn't actually a cheerleader but because she was dating Jordan, hung out with them quite a lot and therefore was expected to hate Clary as much as their captain, Kaelie, did. "Kaelie cheated on him with Chris. Jace walked in on them. It was a nasty break up apparently." Clary's eyes widened. "But you have to keep this a secret! And you did not hear it from me, okay?"

Clary nodded. Jace and Kaelie had been going out since the beginning of sophomore year and, from what Clary could tell, had been pretty serious.

Clary grinned, "God, she must hate me even more."

Maia nodded, "If that's even possible." Clary laughed.

"Well, I've got to get ready for class. I'll see you later?" She asked.

Maia nodded, "See ya."

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><p><strong>AN. Sorry, another fairly short chapter and nothing much happened (It will eventually! I promise). But thanks so much to all that reviewed. <strong>**Please let me know what you all thought?**

_**-**__** 5 reviews: I'll update sometime this week**_

_**- **__**10 reviews: I'll update within the next day or two**_

_**-**__** 15 reviews: I'll update the same day.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**OMIGOD! 50 reviews! What the?! Thank you so much! I was not expecting this. **

**I'm really sorry I couldn't update sooner, I had to go to a party that I completely forgot about :/ but I'm back. **

**This AN's going to be a bit longer and I'm just going to answer some questions I've been asked that you might be thinking too. (Please ask me more if you want to know anything :D ) **

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><p>1. <em>What is up with Newman and Valentine? (Thanks <strong>Arelia Miles<strong>) _

**Basically, Valentine does not physically abuse her. I will continue to show different twists in their relationship later on.**

2. _When are they going to Iceland? (asked by various)_

**Well, I have a lot panned before they go to Iceland. So a couple more chapters to go yet - sorry :/. But when we get there... I think it'll be worth it. **

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><p><span><strong>WARNING! PLEASE READ <strong>** Okay, in this chapter there is a bit about religion in here and I know loads of people get touchy about that kinda thing so please ****don't all blow up in my face. Just tell me if you found it offensive (I don't think it is) and I'll change it.**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**3**

**A WEEK LATER**

Simon asked Clary if she wanted to spend the night at his house, they hadn't had much success in selling caricatures that day so they decided to stay a bit longer and come off the streets later than usual. Since it was dark, neither Simon or Clary liked the idea of her walking home alone. So they had walked back to his house together instead.

They had already hit the four hundred dollar mark and only needed another two hundred. Who knew drawing people on the street could get you so much money so quickly? Clary was certainly surprised it was working.

And now they were both in Simons room. Simon slouched in a bean bag on the floor, staring at the Tv, with Clary curled up on an old sofa drawing him. He was wearing the kind of expression of such intensity that could only be inspired by a set of gaming controllers in your hands and zombies that needed killing on your screen.

About half an hour in, Simon's voice piped up, "Take a picture, It'll last longer." He smirked, not taking his eyes away from the TV.

"Um... No it won't." Simons smirk fell and Clary laughed.

"Come play with me." Simon moaned for the umpteenth time.

Clary rolled her eyes, shut her sketchpad and slid to the floor, "It rots your brain you know. Before you know it, you'll be out on the streets chopping people's heads off with a machete." She put on her best 'patronising-parent' voice and grinned, grabbing the nearest controller on the floor.

Simon snorted, "Yuh, as if. If Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching on pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." He pointed, Clary grinned. "And besides, video games can prepare you for very realistic situations as well."

"Oh yeah, just incase there was a zombie apocalypse or anything." Clary shrugged nonchalantly.

Simon rolled his eyes, "Exactly. See, and now if there were to be a zombie apocalypse, I would be at the front line, slaughtering them all and saving your sorry ass."

Clary snorted and then laughed, "You would be as good at killing a zombie as you would be at playing the bagpipes."

Simon held his chin up, "Then I think you would find I would be a zombie-killing machine."

Clary rolled her eyes, "Do you ever stop and think it's scary how ready our generation is for the zombie apocalypse?"

"No."

Clary laughed. "Now, come on Clary, pick up your game. You've made us loose like five lives."

They fell asleep like that and woke in the morning next to each other on the bean bag, game controller's in hand. They scrambled to get ready as quickly as possible and managed to get to the bus stop fifteen minutes later.

The morning went by reasonably quickly. It was the afternoon Clary was dreading; she had two whole hours of history yet to come and she wasn't sure she would be able to hold back from scouring Newman's eyes out with a fork for that long.

She grabbed her things and trudged slowly to the classroom, grabbing a seat as far back as she could that wasn't already taken. A few minutes later she noticed Jace had sat next to her out the corner of her eye. She grinned; he was probably trying to get as far away from the front as possible. She was glad at least someone shared a mutual hatred for their history teacher.

"Hey," Jace learned over his desk to whisper.

"Hey." Clary greeted, only mildly surprised he had bothered to address her while they were at school.

"Siked for two hours of Newman?"

Clary pursed her lips, "Ecstatic."

Jace laughed quietly.

The door burst open and Newman strode through. Everyone quickly sat down at their desks if they hadn't already. "Right class. Today is going to be more of a religious lesson than a history one, just so we get a deeper understanding and background to our new topic; the American Civil Rights movement, 1940's to 70's."

Clary's mind wondered elsewhere for a good half hour. At least she was already a quarter of the way through the lesson without wanting to throttle her teacher she supposed. Clary didn't know what to think about religion. She didn't necessarily believe in any of them but she didn't not believe in them either. But she had noticed from a young age how school had tried to brainwash her into being religious - and she knew she didn't believe in indoctrination. So when Newman was going on his religious rant about how if you didn't believe in God you'll go to hell or something, she tried to zone out further.

"...So those of you who _do_ go to church - which I should hope is most of you... Who doesn't go to church here?" He asked on a side note.

A little less than half the room slowly raised their hands."I'm surprised of some of you." Newman tutted quietly, "But it's not a shocker some of you don't go. It explains a lot for some people, people like little-Miss red-head over there." Newman's gaze wondered over to Clary.

"It sure would help ingrain some basic human decency."

Clary had chosen that same instant to zone back into reality. Her eyes widened. Were teacher's even aloud to say stuff like that? Newman had done some pretty bad stuff towards Clary but this was an all-time low. That _must_ be illegal. Most of her classmates must've thought so as well, as they were looking between Newman and Clary with their mouths agape. Clary turned her head slightly and saw that Jace, instead of being surprised, was wearing a stoney expression on his face.

"Anyway, as I was saying, for those of you that _do_ go to church, you should know why it is etiquette to be as quiet as possible in there. Why is that?" Newman asked.

"Because people are sleeping."

Clary was surprised to hear Jace's voice.

Newman almost staggered back, his face growing redder, "I beg your pardon?"

"The same reason people are quiet in your lessons."

The class went silent. Red blotches sporting on Newmans face spread out across his face rapidly, leaving just his nose a deathly pale. It was when Clary could see the start of the lip-twitching did she really know how in trouble Jace was.

"Out." His voice grumbled low, pointing at the door.

"Gladly." Jace whispered just loud enough for Clary to hear, picking up his stuff and making his way out the door.

Clary stared after him as the room was dead quiet, everyone feeling the door slamming shut and echoing in the dead room. Newman continued with his lecture but Clary's mind was on other things. She could not believe what Jace had done. He knew Newman was severe in punishments with things that weren't that bad. But talking back to teachers - a thing the all of them seemed to think as unforgivable for some reason - would get him into deep trouble, he must've known that. And Newman giving him the punishment... She would be surprised if he made it out alive.

He must've done it for the comment Newman shot at Clary; she couldn't find another catalyst that would've made Jace do that. But that only made her feel bad. She didn't want him suffering whatever Newman had to offer by himself because of her.

"... And that's why bread is considered a holy food - if you didn't already know. Do you say prayers before you eat, Clarissa?" He asked mockingly, shooting her a disgusting half grin.

Clary shook her head, "I don't have to, my mom's a pretty good cook. I guess you can't say the same for your's, huh?"

A few people in the class snickered. Newman was silent. His face was darkening in colour again as he stared daggers at Clary. "Join Lightwood." He ordered.

But Clary was already out of her seat and leaving the room.

* * *

><p>She quickly found Jace, leaning up against the wall a bit further down the hall, his files hung loosely in one arm. He looked up when he heard the door open. "Clary?" He asked, surprised he saw her face than that of an enraged Mr. Newman.<p>

"Yeah?" She asked as she walked closer to him.

"What did you do this time?" He asked bitterly, "look at him the wrong way?"

Clary laughed half heartedly and leaned up against the wall with him. "Not quite."

They were silent. Listening to the muffled sound of Newmans voice in the classroom.

Clary was slowly getting more and more angry as she replayed the scene in her head. Why did he hate her so much? She didn't get it. She had heard people say how much a teacher 'hated' them before because they kept giving them bad grades. But she was confident this was real resentment that he saw in her.

"You didn't have to do that." Clary said quietly.

Jace turned to look towards her, his golden eyes not giving away any indication of whatever emotion he was feeling. He didn't say anything for so long Clary didn't think he had heard her.

"Why does he hate you so much?"

Clary pursed her lips, "I don't know." She said, and then turned her head away, breaking eye contact. "I'm sorry I got you in trouble." She said, looking down at her hands.

Jace smirked, "If you blame yourself for every time I open my mouth and say something stupid, you would end up in a tiny little urn." He said, gesturing how small between his thumb and forefinger. Clary laughed as Jace grinned.

* * *

><p>They ended up getting the rest of the semester 'volunteering' at the primary school. It's not that Clary didn't like the kids, but it was time consuming - especially on top of trying to make enough money for Iceland - and she had lots of work to catch up on.<p>

When Saturday came, Clary couldn't have been more ready for the weekend. She grinned when she woke up and saw her watch read ten o'clock, nothing compared to her love for late mornings.

She found Valentine in the kitchen, his boots up lazily on the table as he read the paper.

"Good morning." She greeted sleepily.

He grunted something unintelligible and flipped to the next page in his paper. Clary got a glass and poured herself a glass of orange juice.

Valentine's gaze flickered over the top of his newspaper to look at her. "You look disgusting. Go have a shower or whatever it is you do."

Clary looked at him, "...Uh, yeah. That is what I do... along with most of the human population."

Valentine shrugged, "Could've been anyone's guess then."

Clary chugged the last of her orange juice and turned to go have a shower.

"Wait a second," Valentine called. Clary rotated to face him, "what were you doing today?"

Clary shrugged, "Me and Simon were going to the square to go and do some caricatures. We're trying to raise money for-"

"Yeah I didn't ask for your life story." Valentine waved an unbothered hand, "Some mates are coming over for poker tonight. I don't want you coming in the kitchen and ruining our night, alright?"

Clary nodded, "Yeah okay."

The day went quickly, her and Simon had quite a lot of fun. There wasn't any fussy, bothersome customers. When the sun was hanging low, casting an orange glow on the snow that was blanketed over the pavements, they were thinking about packing up soon; they were both tired and cold.

"So what would my caricature be?" Simon asked as they sat around waiting for a couple more customers before they called it a day. Clary cocked her head in question. "You know, what would I look like?"

"Like something I would draw with my left hand." She grinned.

Simon glared at her, "Why am I friends with you?" He asked.

Clary put her hand on her chin in mock thought, "Hmm... well it's definitely not for my ability to draw well with my left hand."

Simon rolled his eyes. Clary laughed at his expression and turned. The scene was beautiful. The square they went to each day had a little ice rink in the centre and lots of little wooden framed huts selling cute little bits and bobs. The snow that had recently settled over new york made it seem more magical in a way. Clary didn't like the cold but she did like how everything looked when it was coated with snow.

She noticed a little boy walking towards them and she smiled. His cheeks were flushed from the cold, his nose slightly red. He wore a blue puffer jacket with woollen gloves. But the thing Clary noticed most about the boy was the oxygen tubing protruding out of his nose and into his backpack.

She smiled as he approached her and Simon.

"Hello," Clary greeted cheerfully.

"Hi." The kid grinned toothily. Clary smiled. Up close, she could see the tell signs that he'd recently been sick. He looked skinny and his cheeks were hollow under his darkened eyes. "These are so cool!" He enthused, staring at some of the ones on display.

Clary was quite modest about her work and wasn't usually so flashy about it. And, still, after all these sessions she had done of caricaturing, she always blushed when someone commented on her work.

"Thank you."

"Could you do one of me?" He grinned again, sniffing from the cold. His dark eyes looked innocently up at hers and she nearly melted. "I just have to wait for my brother to come. He's looking after all my money." He looked over both shoulders suspiciously before leaning towards Simon and Clary, "I've never been so stupid." He whispered and then giggled.

Simon and Clary laughed.

"Max! I've been looking everywhere for you! I - Oh, hi guys."

The three looked up to see a boy jogging towards them. His golden hair only fit for none other than Jace Lightwood.

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><p><strong>I'm sorry, that was an awful ending.<strong>

**I just want to say thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I really _really _appreciate it. I will get round to replying to them at some point.**

**I also wanted to say, the last chapters AN sounded a bit like I didn't like anons, I LOVE anons. Send me anons, or not anons, I don't mind.**

**I might take a bit longer updating this time - or I might not. I've got loads of homework though. So it's a bit unreliable. I'll try to as quickly as possible.**

**And I know I've said it before (like at least three times this ****chapter) but thank you so much for all the kind and supportive reviews (four now).**

**_T__HANK YOU FOR READING /REVIEWING/ FAVOURITING / FOLLOWING!_**

**... 5 ;)**

**Note: I'm sorry, I am aware not much has really happened, I just need to get some grounding. I promise it will come! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys. I'm sorry I couldn't update earlier. I know I said I would be a bit later but I swear I wasn't expecting a week. I caught a really nasty flu/cold thing and felt awful for most of the week. I was in bed watching bad movies and feeling shitty for like three days (a temperature of 102.9!?) **

**But anyways. I want to thank everyone, again, who reviewed and favourited/PM'd/followed and I would love for you all to continue to do so. I promise I am getting round to replying to reviews, I just ****haven't managed yet. But you can always PM me if you want things answered quicker.**

**Oh, and if you have any suggestions or questions PM me or put them in a review (or both). **

**Btw, fun fact someone I've been PMing thought I should mention to you guys. It's quite weird, I am short and have red, really curly hair and am known as the art freak at my school too. But I have yet to find my Jace yet though. Not that I care... *sobs quietly in the corner* **

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Please review!**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**4**

"Hi Jace." Clary said. Simon half waved in greeting.

Max looked up at his tall brother and back to the two strangers at the stall, "You know eachother?" He asked.

Jace ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah. They go to the same school as me."

Max opened his mouth in acknowledgement. "Can I have my face done?" He asked, grinning up at his brother and pointing eagerly to Clary's example drawings.

Jace looked anxious, "I don't know Max…" He trailed off, "We aren't supposed to be here. I should get you back soon."

Max widened his eyes and gave him a tooth-full, pleading smile. "Pleeeeease, Jace?"

Jace frowned but Clary could see he wasn't going to stand a chance at being stubborn when Max was giving him a face like that.

"Please?" He asked hopefully."

Jace rolled his eyes, "Go on then. But then we're leaving. No complaining, okay?"

Max grinned cheekily and went to hug Jace, only reaching his sternum."Yeah, yeah, get off me you twerp." Jace said affectionately, pushing away his little brother, "I could get Max cooties."

Max let go and looked up at him, "But they're the best kind." Clary and Simon laughed.

Jace brushed him away with his hand, "Come on, let's get your face drawn."

Max leapt up onto the stall provided and Clary reached for her A3 sketchpad.

Ten minutes into the drawing and Clary was losing focus from how much she was laughing. Simon and Jace had got into some sort of fight and were bickering over the smallest things – to her and Max's immense amusement.

"_My_ hair's ridiculous?" Jace asked incredulously. "Look at this," He said, flicking one of Simons dark, short curls, "it looks like your mum and a poodle gave birth to you."

Simon pulled away from Jace's hand.

"At least mine doesn't look like a lions backside."

Jace scoffed, "Yeah okay, Pumbaa."

Max squealed with laughter and Clary quickly finished her drawing before the pair ripped each others heads off.

"You don't want to get on Simon's bad side, Jace." Clary warned, "He goes to the gym _at least_ once a year."

Simon shot Clary a look of mock betrayal, she stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll have you know I'm in pretty good shape, _actually_." Simon informed, puffing his chest out.

"Round is a shape, right?" Jace quipped.

Simon glared at him. "I could take you out any day, Lightwood." He said. Clary and Jace looked at him, "I just don't want to."

Clary laughed, "The only thing you've learnt to 'take out' is a dragon or something on you're Xbox."

"And I bet you're not even great at that." Jace added.

Simon looked offended, "I'll have you know I am the world's best dragon slayer. You see any dragons around here? No? You're welcome."

Max howled out with laughter and the three couldn't help but grin. Clary quickly finished the drawing before the fight developed further and showed it to Max when he had caught his breath.

His eyes grew wider, "It looks just like me. But I don't smile that big." He said.

She had added Jace and Simon in the picture, small and behind max. They both looked angry at each other but the corner of Jace's lip was turned up into a smirk; finding it amusing. Max was at the front of the picture, laughing at them. His eyes were squinted shut and his cheeks were on the slight chubby side. His mouth was big and showed off his front teeth.

"It's my first impression of you." Clary explained.

Jace took it out of Max's hand and looked down at it for a while. His gaze travelling across the paper until he finally spoke, "I definitely have a stronger jawbone than that." He said, handing it back to Max.

Max suddenly started kicking his legs that were dangling over the stall. "I know what we're going to do next." He said.

"No Max, I said we need to go. You're not supposed to-" Jace started.

"ICE-SKATING!" He said, pointing to the rink a few yards away.

Jace rolled is eyes, "No Max, you've got to get home. Come on." He said taking his hand and helping him off the tall stool.

"But Jace! I've never been ice-skating." Max pleaded.

"Well I have. It's boring. Come on." He said, gesturing for him to put his scarf he had taken off back on.

"Mum's not even at home today. No one will know." Max pointed, "Come on Jacey. Please."

Jace looked down at his little brother for a while. Clary liked to see the softer side of Jace that wasn't always with his footballer friends, it was different. He may pretend to not look as caring towards his little brother, but she could see through that.

"Fine." Jace conceded and Max pumped a fist in the air. "But only on the condition that you never call me that again until you're on your deathbed, got it?" Max giggled but nodded slightly.

Jace turned to Clary and puled out his wallet, "How much?" He asked.

Clary waved a hand, "Don't worry about it." She said, "Consider it a Christmas present." She smiled at Max.

"Well then, consider me buying your ice skating ticket our Christmas present to you." Jace said, slipping the wallet into his back pocket.

Clary opened her mouth agape slightly. The hottest, most popular guy in the school was telling her he was going to pay for her to go ice skating. With him.

Clary and Jace had been getting friendlier since they had to start 'volunteering' at the pre-school. But they never really spoke outside of that, other than smiling in the hallways.

"Well don't get too excited." Jace said when Clay just stared at him with her mouth open.

She stuttered back into reality, "I – I can't let you pay."

"Sure I can; I'm a nice person." He explained, "And it's actually cheaper to get three tickets than two." Clary rolled her eyes, of corse. "Simple Simon can come too." He shrugged.

Jace turned away and started walking toward the rink with Max at his side. Simon glared heatedly at his retreating back while Clary stared at it with disbelief.

He turned to look at them over his shoulder. "Are you coming?" He called, then half shrugged,"Or I guess you could continue to stare at me. I might do a trick."

Simon looked at Clary. Clary shrugged and started clearing up her stuff as quickly as she could. Simon sighed and stood up to help her, shaking his head and muttering his distaste of the boy under his breath.

* * *

><p>It was when Clary was tying up her boots did she notice one tiny, eency-weency little problem; she had never ice skated once in her whole entire life.<p>

She watched out the window. There were small kids with little bars they could hold onto, or parents that were practically carrying them so they didn't fall over. Then there were a few teenagers and adults that were fairly good. And then there was that group of douchey twenty-something year-olds that were all amazing and were all there for the sole purpose of showing off to their friends.

Max was practically dying of excitement, his legs swinging wildly as they dangled from the stool he sat on.

"When can we go on?" He moaned.

"When Jace comes back we can all go on." Simon said. Jace had left with the skates he had been given to swap them for a bigger size a while ago and, by the looks of it, there was a really long queue.

"But he's taking _forever_." Max whined, "Can't we go on and wait for him out there?" He asked pleadingly.

"Why don't you two go out?" Clary asked, "I'll wait for him here. I haven't finished tying these up anyway." She said, gesturing to her unlaced boot.

Simon looked at her questioningly, asking her if she was sure. Clary nodded and Simon smiled a little in acknowledgement.

"Come on Max, let's go." He said, walking towards the doors.

"Yes!" Max grinned as he leapt off his seat excitedly and almost tripped as he hurried to catch up with Simon.

Clary watched them both disappear onto the ice rink and then turned her attention back to her shoelaces.

She could lace them just fine up until the little hook things. She thought maybe the laces were too thick? Every time she did one and then tried to do the other, the first one would just pop out again. And she was back to square one.

"Try tightening them first." A voice came from behind her.

She jumped and turned to see who it was. She blushed as she saw Jace standing right over her.

"Yeah," She said, quickly, blowing away the hair that had fallen into her face, "I know." She covered, turning around again to hide the shade of red she knew her face was turning.

Clary bent down and continued to tie her shoe laces. She heard Jace chuckle from behind her but she chose to ignore it. He sat down next to her.

"Where'd the others go?" He asked, lazily looking round for Max and Simon.

"Max couldn't wait. They're both already out there." She explained.

Jace smiled slightly and reached down to tie his own boots, "Yeah… Max is a little impatient."

Clary laughed, "Just like his big brother."

Jace sat back up quickly, "What? I'm not impatient." He stated, but he was wearing a hint of a playful smile.

Clary scoffed, "Not impatient…" She trailed off shaking her head, "' Clary, I want to get there sometime this centuary', 'Jesus Clary you're slower than a herd of turtles walking through peanutbutter', 'Come on Clary, at this rate we're going to get there and all the brats will be grown up and meeting for their 50th reunion', 'Speed up Clary, I've seen one legged dogs on tranquillizers walk faster than you.'" Clary said in her deepest voice and nodding her head about between her shoulders, mocking.

Jace opened his mouth, the corner lifted slightly in a smirk, and scoffed, "Okay, first, if I moved my head as much as you're implying I do, I wouldn't have a head to say any of these things, for it probably would have fallen off by now."

"And made the world a better place." Clary added.

"Second," Jace ignored, "I wouldn't have been made to have said any of these if you didn't move like a geriatric snail crossing a salted road. I have every right to be a bit impatient."

"It's not my fault I don't have bean-poles for legs." She said.

"These," Jace gestured to his outstretched legs, "are normal. You're just small."

Clary rolled her eyes, grinning, and stood up, "Whatever, lets just go." She said, now she had finally laced her shoes up.

They walked together to the door that opened to the ice rink. Jace walked straight onto it and skated out a bit before neatly swiveling to face Clary.

She was holding onto the railing, watching all the people zip past her before she took her first tentative step onto the ice.

Jace was about to tease her about her looking as though she had never gone ice skating before, but he stopped short when he looked at her face and saw she _really_ did look like she hadn't before.

He smiled to himself, looking down at his feet as he skated towards her.

"It's really not that bad." He said.

Clary's head shot up, her eyes wide, "Jesus Christ, Jace." She said, putting a hand to her heart, "Quit sneaking up on me like that."

"But it's so much fun." Jace smarted. Clary glared up at him, noticing the playful twinkle in his eye, and then focused back on the task at hand.

She took a breath and started trying to copy some of the other skaters, her hand gripping firmly to the wall.

Clary felt Jace watching her back as she shuffled up the wall a few meters, her knuckles white from gripping it so hard and her blush a deep red, before he skated over to her. "Okay Clary, stop."

She ignored him, still shuffling forward (which he kept pace with easily) and looked up at him heatedly, "I'm actually moving and you want me to stop? I probably won't start again."

Jace laughed and Clary watched him skate out into the center of the rink. "Show off." She muttered under her breath.

"Copy me." He called skating slowly but gracefully back towards her.

"Pfft. Easier said than done." She rolled her eyes.

He shook his head at her stubbornness, "Just try."

Clary frowned and was about to start trying along the wall.

"I'll make sure you won't fall." He said. Clary turned to him and realized he was holding out his hand.

She consciously kept herself from letting her jaw hang. Jace Lightwood – jock, and most popular guy in the school, having just bought Clary Fray – art freak with one best friend and enemy of Jace's (ex?) girlfriend, a ticket to go ice skating, was offering to hold said loser's hand so she didn't fall.

Clary stared at his outstretched hand and then back to her iron grip on the wall.  
>"I - I think I'm cool with the wall." She said, trying to move away as quickly as she could… which wasn't very quickly at all.<p>

Jace was in front of her before she could blink.

"Come on, Morgernstern." He said, "I don't want to look like I'm hanging out with Bambi. It'll ruin my rep."

Clary gestured to the whole ice rink with her hand, "By all means. You're free to leave me."

Jace raised an eyebrow and waited for a bit in question. Clary didn't budge.

"I'm not moving Morgernstern."

Clary frowned when she noticed the look was back in his eyes. He wasn't going anywhere. And she couldn't exactly go around him.

She sighed and put her hand into his open, inviting one. Her expression was one of annoyance, well at least she hoped it was because inside she was freaking out.

"Okay Lightwood, but if I die I swear to God I'll come back from the grave and hunt your ass down."

Jace laughed, her tone of voice didn't match her expression as he pushed them away from the barrier. She looked terrified.

Clary had completely forgotten about how she was holding hands with Jace and how she had never imagined anything of the sort would happen in a parallel universe, and held onto it for dear life as other skaters whizzed past, inches away from them.

As they slowly skated round the rink and Clary was starting to at least get the hang of a fairly stable, amateur, technique, she was pretty sure that Jace must've lost circulation in his hand judging from how hard she was holding onto it.

"So what are you doing here?" He asked.

Clary frowned and looked up at him, "I'm ice skating… with you. You bought me a ticket? Ring a bell?"

Jace sighed, "I mean the whole caricature thing."

"Oh well…" She trailed off in thought, "You know the whole geography trip we're going off on in a few weeks?"

"Yeah."

"Well, my Father said he wasn't going to pay for it… so here I am." She shrugged, loosening her grip on his hands a little. She was starting to feel a little more confident about not falling over and being decapitated by someone skating over her neck.

Jace's brows furrowed and he looked down at her, "Why does he want to pay for it?"

Clary shrugged, "He's not going on the trip, so why should he?"

"He's your parent. He should want you to go on it." He pointed, "What about your mother? What does she think?"

"She died I while ago." Clary said quietly. When Jace was silent, she thought he wanted her to continue, "I was seven. There was a fire. She saved me. And my Father got out." Her voice cracked slightly and she looked down towards her skates, gliding in sync with Jace's, "My mom and brother… not so lucky." She bit her lip. She didn't know why she was rambling to Jace about all this, she couldn't stop herself. But it felt good though.

Jace didn't say anything. They had gone around almost another half of the rink until he spoke again, almost startling Clary "Mine were in a crash. Drunk driver." He said, his voice low. "I was in the back seat." His tone lightened a bit, "The Lightwoods were great. We'd been family friends since I can remember. They took me in and I moved to New York."

"What about Max?" Clary asked, "How old is he? I know Isabelle's in our year. And Alec's two years above."

"He's nine." Clary's eyes's widened and Jace laughed, "I know, he looks about seven."

Clary paused before looking up at Jace, "Is he… Is he sick or…?" She trailed off.

"Cystic Fibrosis." He explained.

Clary nodded in acknowledgement and opened her mouth to respond when she was hit roughly in the back. The force of the mass made her fall to the side. She flew her free hand up to cover her face on instinct, ready to collide with the ice.

Her other arm was yanked hard and she felt a hand quickly wrap around her waist before she could hit the floor.

"Hey!" She heard Jace call, "Watch where you're going!" He yelled menacingly at some show off from the twenty-something-year-old douchebag club. She heard a small sorry uttered and saw him dart away back to his group of friends.

Jace pulled Clary back onto her feet - how he'd managed to do so while staying upright remained a mystery to Clary - and held her, making sure she was steady, "Are you alright?" he asked, looking down at her worriedly.

Clary nodded, looking at her feet as she blushed, "Thanks."

Jace released her just in time to watch Max and Simon glide towards them.

"We saw what happened." Simon panted, looking Clary up and down, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clary smiled.

"We saw you two skating." Max said and then looked at Clary, "What happened? Why were you swerving everywhere? did you get the wrong size shoes or something?"

Jace and Simon burst out laughing and Clary elbowed Jace in the stomach and reached over to punch Simons arm.

"How about we go round again. We've only got half an hour left." Clary pointed quickly.

But Simon and Jace weren't done yet. Clay looked down to Max who was watching the two laughing teenagers, wondering what he'd said. He turned to Clary and shrugged. Clary shrugged back, "Do you want to go round again?" She asked.

Max grinned and took her hand. They were only a few meters away before the other two realized they were being left alone with each other and quickly caught up with Clary and Max.

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><p>It was dark when Clary got to the street she lived on, but she was wearing a smile anyways. She had had such a great afternoon. Jace and Max were hilarious. And it was nice to get to know Jace a little more. Simon might not agree with her but she thought there was a lot more to Jace than just an arrogant jock with a cheerleader (ex?) girlfriend to cling to his arm. Especially around his little brother.<p>

She walked up to her house and pulled out her key, jiggling it to fit into the rusty key hole. It was when she finally got the door to open and heard the sound of laughter of middle aged drunken men coming from inside did she remember that it was Valenitne's poker night tonight.

She quickly shut the door and scurried through the entrance bit and straight to her bedroom, flinging her bag of art stuff and money on the bed. She thought she would quickly go to the kitchen to grab a drink and then turn in of the night - she didn't want to be seen and anger her farther.

Swiftly moving to the kitchen, Clary found herself a glass and grabbed some milk out of the small fridge. She could smell the scent of mingled beer and cigars wafting from the living room. She wrinkled her nose and put the milk back.

She turned around and almost walked straight into one of the most tallest men Clary had ever seen.

"Who da fuck are you?" He grunted, moving back a half step.

God he stank. Everything you didn't want to smell of, you could find it somewhere. Beer, smoke, BO, piss, you name it.

"Sorry," Clary mumbled, "I'm just leaving -"

"CLARISSA!" She heard her name being yelled. She winced and slowly spun around to see Valentine. A half empty bottle of Jack Daniels held lazily between his fingers, leaning up against the wall with the other hand. Valentine's expression looked murderous, and he appeared to be _very_ drunk. This couldn't be good.

"Go to your room." He snarled. "I'll see you in there in a second."

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><p><strong>So, thanks for reading. Please review!<strong>

**I'm sorry this is a kinda bad chapter, it was just a filler-in. And I'm really tired... oh well.**

**Suggestions/questions/liked bits/not as liked bits... anything - it would be really cool to hear from you and give you more of a story you want to read.**

_**-**__** 5 reviews: I'll update sometime this week**_

_**-**__** 10 reviews: I'll update within the next day or two**_

_**-**__** 15 reviews: I'll update that day.**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey!**

**I'm so sorry for not updating earlier. It was that last week of school and I got so distracted. Especially since I go to boarding school, there was christmas-y events every evening and now I'm exhausted. But now it is the holidays, and I can actually update when I say I will!.**

**Thanks to everyone for reviewing! It makes me so happy :D The next chapter is dedicated to whoever is the 100th reviewer (we're on 99! ****What the?! £$ /?) but this one, is to Arelia Miles for her constant support and wonderful reviews. Thank you!**

_**BTW**** -**_**I know in the books Simon's father died from a heart attack, but in this one, he just works in the army and is alive.**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**5**

Maia held onto Jordan's hand. They were warm, her hand small in his. She was freezing, but she didn't want to say anything. He had said he wanted to take her out this evening. She hadn't known what they would be doing though; they had both spent all their pocket money for the month.

But she could never have imagined a date more perfect. Lying on the hood of his little red, rusty pickup truck with a packet of McDonalds fries between them.

The night was partly clear. The clouds illuminated a silver-grey by the moon and every now and then a break would reveal a patch of stars. It was beautiful. She didn't care how cold it was.

They lay silent, looking up at the clouds and listening to the lake beside them clash softly with the wall, a peaceful strangled noise.

When Jordan had first asked to be her boyfriend, she had said no. Her brother's actions and mistakes still fresh in her mind, imprinting an image for all boys that made her want to avoid them. She was afraid of them hurting her.

The second time he had asked her out, she thought she'd give it a go. She couldn't avoid boys forever. And, instead of what she'd expected to find in Jordan, she'd found a sense of security. She told him everything, and he always listened. She had even started to hang out with his friends at school, feeling even safer. Maia had never had a good opinion of the kind of people Jordan hung out with – the football team and that. But, getting to know them, they were much different than they appeared. Willing to stick up for her. They had quickly become friendly with her and now she was finding that they were whom she hung out with most of the time. She didn't mean for it to happen… it just did.

She had never seen anything like that coming. The concept was still surreal to her. Going from a nobody to hanging out with 'the popular's'. She wouldn't consider herself one, but she definitely noticed a change in how people acted around her.

She didn't really know what happened, why Jordan even started liking her in the first place. They had been partnered on a school project together, something about frogs. And then, after a couple weeks of not speaking to each other, he sought her out amongst the crowd of cheering fans that had all ran onto the pitch in victory, dipped her, and kissed her in front of the entire school (and her mom…). That was the first time he had asked her out.

"You look cold."

She hadn't noticed, but he had been watching her look up at the sky and think for a good five minutes now. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold and her lips a bright red.

She rolled her head to look at him and smiled slowly, tightening her grip on his hand. "I'm fine."

She watched his face as the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile. He shrugged off his jacket and Maia rolled her eyes, ignoring the wave of butterflies erupting in her stomach. "Really? So cliché."

Jordan smirked as he draped the heavy jacket over Maia's frame without sitting up throughout the process. "What can I say? I'm an old fashioned guy."

He snaked an arm around Maia's waist and pulled her into him, her back pressing into his chest. Her golden, curly brown hair fell haphazardly around her face and across the metal of the car.

The butterflies were almost overwhelming. Maia's mouth grew slowly into a grin.

Jordan chuckled lightly, "Why're you smiling?"

Her smile broadened into a grin and she snuggled closer into his chest, "No reason."

There was a pause as Jordan lay his head back down on the car. "Before I met you, I never really knew what it was like to smile for no reason." He mumbled into her hair.

Maia felt like a shard of razor sharp ice sliced through her stomach – in the nicest way possible. She squeezed his hand.

"I love you Maia." He mumbled, squeezing her hand back.

Maia froze. Her smile slowly faded – not that Jordan could see.

She never trusted a cute boy with a pretty face. Never aloud herself to even walk near them only a few months ago. And here she was lying, in one of their arms on the hood of a car. And he had just told her he loved her. _He _loved _her_. He _loved _her.

She didn't know what to think about that.

But when she rolled over in the confines of his arms to stare into his eyes, only inches away from her own, she saw real love there. And she quickly knew her answer.

"I love you too." She whispered.

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><p>Simon felt bad about leaving Clary to walk home by herself, but it was late and he had to walk home too. Plus, his mom was probably going to kill him for being so late anyway.<p>

At the thought, he picked up the pace and turned into the small path through the garden that led to his home.

He opened the front door and closed it as quietly as possible. It seemed much quieter than usual, setting Simon's senses alert. He couldn't hear his older twenty-year-old sister, Rebecca, anywhere – which wasn't that much of a surprise since she never seemed to be in the house these days, she had an apartment closer to her college. But his mother was nowhere in sight.

His father worked as a high ranking member of the army and was currently somewhere in Europe, so he wasn't expecting him to be there. He never was. He came home maybe once or twice a year. He smiled, remembering his promise to be back in New York for Christmas.

Walking into the living room, he could smell what he could only assume was his dinner burning in the oven. In the kitchen, the smell intensified and he hurried over to the oven. Grabbing a pear of mitts, he pulled out a lump of charcoal that took the shape of a casserole. Smoke filled the room and he rushed to open the window after disposing the casserole in the bin, wafting the air with his other hand.

Coughing, he left the kitchen to vent itself out and entered the living room. Simon, his mother, and Rebecca all lived in a small four bedroom house with a tiny back garden that led out from the kitchen door. There weren't many places she could have been. He checked the laundry room – where the hum of the machines indicated she had been there recently. Knocking on the bathroom door and nudging it open revealed no luck. No one in the living room. Climbing the narrow stairs, he checked his room. Then Rebecca's room. His mother's room was at the end of the corridor.

Approaching it, he heard her voice coming from behind. He half smiled and reached out to open it. Walking into the partial darkness, he felt his shoulders relax, "Hey mom, I was wonderi-" He stopped.

Looking up, he saw his mom lay spread out on her bed – her distinctive brown curls splayed haphazardly on the pillows, her face scrunched up. Someone was lying on top of her. Both were clearly naked. And that someone had blonde hair that was definitely not the dark curly mop of his fathers.

"Ugh!" Simon yelled, mortified. Covering his eyes and turning his head, "Ugh! Oh my God." He pointed to the door, "I'm just gunna," He trailed off and made a beeline for the door.

Shock consumed him completely, controlling his actions. He couldn't deduce what he was thinking or feeling, he wasn't thinking of anything at all. Nothing.

He heard his mother calling his name out, but he was already at the top of the staircase.

"Simon!"

Simon felt like he was going to throw up. His mind felt detached from his body as his legs seemed to move on their own accord – sprinting down the staircase.

"Simon! Wait!"

He heard her footsteps running down the corridor and then down the stairs.

Simon walked to the living room, quickly finding his jacket sprawled on the sofa. He picked it up and shrugged it on aggressively, hurrying to the door. Opening it and stepping into the biting, late November air, he slammed it with as much force as he could. Only for it to be opened a few seconds later by his mother. But Simon was already walking speedily down the path from his house to the sidewalk.

"Simon." She yelled, her voice strict in the hope he would stop. He did and spun around to face her. His face was stony and his eyes fierce as they pierced into hers. It took her breathe away. "Simon." She said quietly, her voice cracking.

"What! What do you want?" He yelled.

"I just want to talk to you." She tried to reason, her voice weak.

"About what?" He screamed at her, "What can you possibly say that could make this any better?"

He could see his mother's eyes mist over as tears overwhelmed them. "Please Simon." She asked, her voice trembling. She was terrified of the way Simon was looking at her. Never in her life did she ever think she could've seen so much anger and pain on her young boy's shoulders. And to think she had caused it... "Can we – can we please just go inside and talk?"

She looked so fragile, standing there, shivering in her silk dressing gown wrapped tightly around her, barefoot on the wet grass. But Simon couldn't find it in himself to care.

"We have nothing to talk about." He said icily, turning around and walking to the pavement.

"Wait," His mother tried desperately, "Please."

"Please what!?" He turned around feistily. "I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear that you went behind my back – behind _dad's_ back – and were off screwing some random douche." He yelled, ignoring his mother as sobs wracked her body at his words, "I don't want to hear that. You cannot _possibly_ have _anything_ to say to me that could be more clear than what I just saw."

Simon wasn't even focusing on what he was saying, the words tumbling out of his mouth as he felt himself go lightheaded. The world started to spin as his emotions overwhelmed him. Anger. It was blinding. But it was mostly the hurt. He felt his insides threaten to tear apart. His head pounded like a wild animal fighting its way out a cage. "I don't want to hear that you don't love Dad anymore. I can't-"

"I do love your father!" His mother interrupted, her voice raised but still jittery from crying. "I do." She took a breathe. "I love your father so much it hurts. I just-"

"Then why are you cheating on him!?" Simon screamed.

She sobbed again, fresh tears running hastily down her face, "It's just," She stopped when her throat choked up and she continued to sob. Her tears blocked her vision, "It's so hard." She voiced shakily. "It's so hard not knowing if he won't come home again. I hate him not being here. I miss him so much. So, so much." She took a deep, calming breath, "But when he doesn't come home for so long I…" She trailed off, "I start to forget. Why I'm in love with him, what he's like. Hell, I forget what he looks like sometimes. And then each year, the week he is around, I fall in love with him all over again. It's just… so hard to remember." She voiced, "I could never be able to tell him how I feel. It wouldn't be fair to him. He loves his job. I love him too much." She explained, "I do love him." She said again, as if reminding herself.

Simon shook his head, "Then how can you betray him like this?" He hissed, turning his back once more and moved to cross the road – no destination in mind.

"I was going to tell him." She called helplessly after him, jogging to try and catch up. "I swear I was. Right after I –" She stopped abruptly, her tone changing completely, all emotions instantly forgotten as her mood metamorphosed into a paralysing terror.

"SIMON!"

Something about the urgency of her voice, the desperation – call it reflex, or instinct – made him turn around.

He only caught a glimpse of her wild, frantic eyes before he made a half turn to see what she was looking at.

The brightest dirty-yellow light enveloped his vision, blinding him. His ears vibrated with a deafening ringing sound – drowning out the noise of his mothers screams.

It came at him, sharp and fast - there was no time to react. No time for breath as his world went from a blinding brightness, to an all-encompassing darkness.

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><p><strong>Ahhh. I know, I'm sorry. I didn't even give you any Clary. Im awful. I am actually really nervous about what you guys will think about this chapter - if I made a big mistake.<strong>

**So, please let me know what you thought - it would be amazing to hear. I'm so down to hear some suggestions and negative/positive comments. Or questions in general.**

**And thank you so much to all of those that have reviewed!**

**And thanks once again to Arelia Miles!**

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><p><em><strong>-<strong>__** 10 reviews: I'll update sometime this week**_

_**-**__** 15 reviews: I'll update within the next day or two**_

_**-**__** 20 reviews: I'll update that day.**_

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><p>I'd especially like to thank Arelia Miles, ShadowAngel100, Liz 399, reemarie36, FanOfTheWrittenArt, Riley207, Rebeeca Fairchild, Fangirl Crazi 407, TMI Herondales and all the dust reviews that I can't reply to for constant support. I know everyone does shoutouts, but I really do mean it. Thanks so much for being there guys! Xx<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

**AHHHHAHAHA! WE HIT 100 REVIEWS!?****I was seriously not expecting this reaction when I started writing this story. So thank you guys all so much. I can't thank you enough. AND, almost 100 followers!?**

**This chapter is dedicated to Riley207 - my ****hundredth reviewer. Thank you so much! :D**

**Please let me know what you all thought **

**PS. I read this really good fic the other day called _Shake My Bones_ by Niskasbitch. She is an awesome writer and has a really cool plot. So if you're looking for something to read, go for it.**

**Also, if people know any good fics for me to read - you're favourites, or your own (self promos are fine), I'm trying to find some. So could you send me the names of a couple? I might mention a few of them at the end of my next chapter if some of you - like me - are looking for some good f****ics.**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**6**

Clary felt miserable. Her body ached and she was exhausted. Having near-to-no sleep on a school night when you have to wake up so early was never a good idea.

Going to school was the last thing she needed. But she managed the forty-minute walk in the rain there with five minutes to spare.

Ignoring her wet clothes, she trudged through the hallways and headed straight to her class.

Her fiery red hair fell over her face as she walked with her head down. Yes she had makeup, but only the cheapo ones used to cover spots and help you look a little less like you just woke up and rolled out of your coffin. No matter how many layers of cover up she put on, she couldn't get rid of the blue-green tinge left on her cheek by her father.

"Hey Clary!" She heard someone call out from behind her. She spun slowly to find Maia walking towards her, "Clary! I've got something huge to tell you. Last night, Jordan and I were hanging out, and he told me–"

"Look Maia, I'm really sorry. Do you mind if you could tell me at lunch? I've got to get my stuff for geography before it starts." She said.

Maia smiled in understanding, "Oh yeah, of corse. I'll see you then." Clary was about to walk off when Maia grabbed her arm, "Are you alright?" She asked.

Clary nodded and offered a meager smile, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Staring out the window of her Geography lesson, Clary shivered as events of the night before ran through her mind.

Valentine had never hit her before. Sure, he had pretty much always been a dick to her. But physical abuse had never been his style. For as long as Clary could remember, he had blamed her for her mother and brother's death. And since then, he just hadn't really cared about her. Like she was some adorable puppy once, then when she grew up and was no longer as cute, Valentine had left her to fend for herself. Especially when her mother was no longer there to remind him how to be happy around her, but Clary had no one to blame her death on but herself.

The memory of her cheerful, loving father had almost completely faded. But the little snippets she did get – a flash of a smile, Valentine and her mother laughing, him hugging her brother, a strong father flying a small Clary into the air on the beach – were as if she was remembering a different person who had died with her mother. In fact, that whole life had died in that fire. She tried hard to keep the small memories with her, but they where as if she were looking into someone else's life.

She had no big brother to pick her off the floor when she fell, and no mother to kiss the scraped knee better. Just a middle aged, anger consumed alcoholic who didn't want her.

She wiped a lone tear angrily away from her cheek.  
>And now that drunken idiot had actually hit her. The memories of being cornered up against her bedroom wall, too horrified to defend her self, too scared to react, still fresh. She remembered the first hit to her face; she couldn't feel it at first – whether it was the shock to her body or the shock of the fact that he was actually doing this. And then the pain kicked in, she hadn't even noticed hitting the back of her head against the wall. Then there must've been kicks to her stomach or something, because she definitely felt them now – even if she didn't remember them being delivered.<p>

Sure he had been drunk before – extremely so. But he had never taken it out on her. And the possibility of it happening again terrified her. When she woke up this morning, she had been so worried about accidently waking up the passed out drunk on the sofa and his many buddies scattered around the tiny living room, she almost hadn't gone to school to avoid walking past them. She felt ridiculous – especially now looking back on it. What had she resorted to? She laughed bitterly to herself, wiping another tear away aggressively. If only her big brother could see her now.

"Is there something funny Ms. Morgernstern?" The teacher, Mr Bullrick – who everyone nicknamed Bull - questioned.

So far out of it she had forgotten she was even at school, she snapped violently out of her daze and averted her eyes from the window. Bull was built like a brick and almost as intelligent as one – but he was still Clary's favorite teacher.

"No." Clary said, shaking her head, "No, nothing."

Bull raised an eyebrow at her and shook his head good naturedly, continuing with the lesson. That was why he was her favorite.

"So class, now we only have…" He trailed off to look down at his watch, "five minutes left, I thought we could talk about the Iceland trip."

There was an eruption of whispers that spread through the class, Bull had to raise a hand to gesture for silence before it stopped.

"Now, for the few of you that haven't handed in your permission slips yet, you're going to have to do so by Friday. And today is…"

"Wednesday." A boy muttered from the front row.

"Wednesday," Bull repeated, nodding to the boy in appreciation, "so that gives you two days. Otherwise, you'll find yourselves still in New York while we are on the plane out there. Is that understood?"

The class nodded and Clary groaned inwardly. She wanted to go so badly. Yesterday was estimated to be their last caricature session, so she should have the money - she hadn't counted the night before. But it was the actual asking Valentine to sign it again that bought the icy feeling to her stomach.

"Now, are there any questions about the trip?" Bull asked.

Several students raised their hands, he pointed at one in the second row.

"When will we find out who we're in a dorm with? And how many people per dorm?" She asked.

"Good question. I think you find out whom you're with when we get to the hostel. And you should be in dorms of two to four."

More questions were asked and answered and Clary could feel the excitement of the trip build in the room. And she felt a sinking feeling with everyone that was asked – knowing she probably wouldn't be able to go.

The bell rang and Bull shouted out their homework over the sound of scraping chairs and teenagers rushing to get out of the classroom.

* * *

><p>Clary walked gloomily back to her locker at the end of the school day. Simon hadn't been in her English lesson. He was the one person she really felt like she needed to see right now. Now, come to think of it, she hadn't seen or spoken to him since the night before.<p>

She pulled out her brick Nokia phone from her pocket and looked down at the cracked screen – nothing from Simon. He usually told her when he was sick or something and couldn't come to school, asking her if she could write notes for him or something.

The Nokia was suddenly knocked out of her hands when her shoulders were shoved, her back hitting the lockers. She winced and felt the need to curl in on herself with the pain coming from her stomach wounds, but she resisted. The first thing she noticed as she looked up was the blonde hair. Kaelie.

Clary groaned, a Kaelie confrontation was literally the last thing Clary could think of that she needed right now.

The blonde was grinning sarcastically at her, "So." She said, moving closer to Clary, "Seelie heard that Tommy's little brother's best friend saw you and Jace together last night."

"Yeah. So?" Clary asked, standing up straighter to match Kaelie's gaze, shaking off her two goons that held her at the shoulder. She refused to be intimidated, but she was still a good few inches shorter and it didn't have quite the effect she was intending. "Look, Kaelie, I'm really not in the mood for –"

"Jace and I literally broke up like last week and you're already moving onto him? You are such a little desperate slut."

Clary resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was a slut? Coming from Kaelie? Really. "You don't own Jace, Kaelie. He can do what he likes. And if he wants to hang out with me as _friends_. Then you can't stop him."

Clary watched as Kaelie's lips turned into a mischievous smirk, "Did he do that to you?" She asked.

Clary frowned, thinking Kaelie had final lost it. Then she remembered her cheek. She quickly hung her head enough to let her hair cover it up.

"Oh my god. I bet you tried to make a move on him or something. Or did you fall flat on your face on your little skating date?" She asked, laughing, the two other cheerleaders chuckling. Then she shrugged, "Both are as likely as the other I guess." Her eyes brightened, "Or was it that little homeless fleebag you call a father?" Clary flinched slightly, feeding Kaelie's satisfaction. "It was, wasn't it?" She said, her grin widening.

Clary stood up taller, something inside of her snapping, "Kaelie, you don't know shit about me or my family. So why don't you run off and take your scant, manicured ass over to the little girls room and take a laxative, cause you're so full of shit."

The girl on Clary's right couldn't hide her laugh. Kaelie frowned and glared at the girl, then focused her attention back on Clary, "Whoa, keep your tampon in. I was just-"

"Kaelie. Back off."

Clary's shoulders relaxed – she hadn't even realized they were hunched. Relief flooded her as she heard Jace's voice.

Kaelie quickly turned to Jace, "But, babe," She said, her voice switching imminently from slimey bitch to seductive slut, "I was just reminding her where she stands. Everyone needs a rain check once in a while, I'm doing her a favour."

Jace shook his head in amusement, chuckling lightly, "Kaelie, you can't control me." He said, "I told you; we're over."

Kaelie moved closer to him, quickly forgetting about Clary. "But babe." She whined, "I already told you I'm sorry about Chris, I was drunk - it was a one off." She stepped closer to Jace. Clary was surprised to find real desperation in Kaelie's voice - she really did like Jace, not just as a fling. "Remember how much fun we had with each other? We work together. Babe, you're never going to find someone like me."

Jace smirked, "I'm not sure you get it; that's the plan."

Kaelie's hurt expression morphed into one of anger, "You are such a dick, Jace Lightwood." She turned her back on him with a swish of her hair, "You're going to regret this, you orphaned jackass." She hissed, hurrying away, her groupies rushing to catch up with her.

Jace turned to Clary, and leaned on the locker next to her. They were silent, their breathing the only thing audible.

Clary turned to look at him, "So what got you hooked first? Was it the dreamy blue eyes? Or the ability to keep a bitchy alter ego hidden so well from the rest of the world?"

"Oh definitely the bitchy alter ego." Jace laughed, "Damn, what a keeper."

"Are you sure you don't want to go run after her? Beg for her back?" Clary grinned.

"I think I'll pass." Jace smirked, leaning against the locker next to Clary, "Are you sure you're your okay though?"

Clary nodded again, "Yeah, I'm fine."

He turned to face her, about to say something when he saw something, his expression changing. "What's that?" He asked.

"What?" Clary asked, confused.

He stood back up and moved towards Clary, pushing her hair out of her face. Clary frowned, thoroughly confused, until he reached out to touch her cheek.

"Oh." She said, pulling away, "It's nothing. I just… walked into something."

"What? In the shape of a fist?" He asked. Clary was surprised to find his voice angry.

"Well…" Clary trailed off, searching for something to say.

"Seriously Clary, who was it?" He asked sternly.

"It was no one." Clary said defensively, "It doesn't matter, Jace. It's in the past."

"Yes it does matter!" Jace said incredulously, "Just tell me who it was Clary. Just a name."

Clary shook her head, looking up to his concerned face "Sorry Jace. I can't." She said, turning before he could say more on the subject and hurrying off.

She headed straight for the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, she pulled out some foundation from her pocket and reapplied it to the bruise. She knew it wouldn't last long, but it was better than nothing.

Her mind wondered to the whereabouts of her missing best friend was again, there were still no texts or missed calls. She pulled out her phone and started to dial his number, dropping it once again when it vibrated violently and her ring tone sang out. Picking it off the floor, Simon's name was written across the screen as an incoming call.

She grinned as she pressed the green button and put it to her ear. Her day had been awful and she felt like Simon's help was needed, it was the one thing she could think of that could cheer her up.

"Hey Simon." She greeted cheerfully, "You know I was just about to phone you. I think we've been spending too much time together or something. I –"

"_Clary?_"

Clary froze as a very feminine, very shaky, and a voice she was very sure was not Simon's came through.

"Elaine?" Clary questioned, confused. It sounded like Simon's mother.

"_Yeah, it's me_." She sniffed. She sounded to Clary as though she was crying, but Elaine Lewis was not the kind of character you would think of tears as being a physical capability.

Clary turned to lean her back against the sink. "Hi Elaine," She said uncertainly, "Are you – are you okay?"

_"It's… It's Simon._"

Clary felt her heart stop. She tried to mutter out a 'what?', but no sound came out. Her whole world disintegrated around her as she slid to the floor, tears coming to her eyes quicker than she could account for.

"_Clary? Clary, are you still there_?"

Her breathing flew rapidly out of control; it took her several attempts to verbalize a noise, "Oh my God. He's not –" Her voice sounded strangled, "He –"

"_Oh no Clary dear, he's not dead. I'm sorry._" The crackly, shaky voice came through again, "_He's in the hospital. There was a car crash… I think he would want you here."_

Clary forced herself to take a deep gulp for air, a huge weight lifting off her stomach, allowing her lungs to breathe again.

She nodded, picking herself off the floor, "I'm on my way." She said, hanging up the phone and running out the door, letting her tears fall freely as she sprinted through hallways.

Turning a corner, she ran straight into someone. They steadied her by her shoulders, Clary looked up to see Maia.

"Clary!" She enthused, an ear splitting grin plastered on her face, "I've been looking everywhere for you. I-"

"I don't care what Jordan did Maia!" Clary all but yelled. Maia flinched, "I have to go. Can you move?" She asked, pushing past Maia and running out of the school doors.

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><p><strong>Sorry, nothing much happened again in this chapter, but it'll come.<strong>

**I'm also very sorry for the accidental update of chapter 6 when it didn't ****actually appear for some reason, thanks to liz399 and guest for pointing this out.**

**Also - I don't actually know Simon's mom's name, so if anyone knows could you let me know? Thank you :D**

**SUGGESTIONS - I would really love some suggestions. I haven't had many and it would be really helpful to know what you guys want :D**

**Thanks everyone for being so supportive! Please review and let me know what you thought!**

**I'd also like to shoutout ****these reviewers for making me laugh in their comments: lindsayhonaker, A Person, Guests, Jaia, Arelia Miles, Kidzawg (especially), Jill, MachoMac**

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><p><strong>~ 15 reviews: I'll update sometime this week<strong>

**~ 20 reviews: I'll update sometime in the next day or two**

**~ 25 reviews: I'll update the same day**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey. Sorry, haven't had time to read through this so there will probably be loads of mistakes. **

**And sorry I haven't updated in yonks - I've been super ill. Stupid winter. **

**Enjoy :D**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**7**

Clary only stopped running when she was stood outside the memorial hospital Elaine had texted the directions to. The whole way, scenarios of the worst kind ran on as a film in Clary's head.

She looked around, about to call Elaine back to ask her where to go, when she spotted the middle-aged brunette walking towards her. Her eyes were red rimmed and her cheeks had dried tear tracks lining down them. Dark bag's under her eyes suggested she had been up all night. She held her arms out wide, inviting Clary for a hug.

Clary walked to her and wrapped her arms around her, Elaine enveloping her tightly.

"Oh Clary darling." She said, resting her chin on Clary's head. "I'm so glad you're here."

"What happened?" Clary mumbled into her shoulder, her voice off from crying.

Clary felt Elaine's body shudder. "Oh God Clary. I messed up."

Clary pulled back slightly, holding her at arms length to look at her eyes, "It wasn't your fault, Elaine."

Elaine shook her head, wiping away

Clary pulled away, hiccupping and red eyed. "Can - can we see him yet?"

Elaine nodded and held her arm, leading her through the hospital to the hospital doors and down different corridors.

"What happened?" Clary asked tentatively.

Elaine slowed down, "We were," Clary could see her already-red eyes cloud over with tears again. She squeezed her hand comfortingly, urging her to continue, "We were… fighting. He walked out onto the road. We were yelling at eachother." She stuttered, "And then I saw the car. I couldn't… I couldn't warn him in time. He was hit. He rolled up onto the bonnet," She gestured a spiraling motion, then reached to wipe her cheeks as she relived the moment. Clary felt her heart swell. "And then, the car stopped. I ran to him, but he was unconscious. The guy had gotten out of his car, kept saying sorry. I yelled at him to call an ambulance. God Clary, there was blood everywhere."

Clary's stomach tightened, "…How is he?"

Elaine shook her head, swiping her sleeves hastily at her eyes, "He's not bad Clary – not as bad as he looked. They said head injuries bleed a lot. He's got a mild concussion, a broken arm and some nasty looing bruising." She said, "They're keeping him in over night for observation. Sorry if I scared you when I phoned you. I know it's not bad but…"

Clary shook her head, accepting and dismissing her apology. 'What about now?"

"He's conscious, but he's been sleeping pretty much since he first woke up."

Clary nodded her acknowledgement. Elaine led them both into an elevator; they rode up to the second floor in silence. Stepping out, Clary looked up at the sign spelling _Pediatric Ward_ as they walked through. Venturing further into the ward, tried Clary to contain her laughter at the wall decorations. Ever since the day one came into their pre-school, Simon had always been terrified of clowns – though, he never admitted it. She wasn't sure how he would react once he was lucid enough to notice them.

"It's that one." Elaine said, pointing to a room at the end of the corridor.

Clary looked up at her in confusion, "You're not coming?"

Elaine shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. "No. He wouldn't want me in there."

Clary frowned, thinking for a moment, "The fight?" She asked quizzically.

Elaine nodded. Clary thought she was overreacting – of corse Simon would want his mom with him, regardless of a fight. But she thought she wouldn't push it further.

"You can go see him though." She nodded to the door.

Clary didn't need to be asked twice.

The hospital room was bland - all white and stank strongly of disinfectant. There were two rows of crisp-white beds in the large room. Clary recognized the distinctive mop of dark, curly hair from afar on one of the beds at the very end. He looked so fragile. Clary stood in the doorway, too shocked to venture further into the room.

"Now you must be Clarissa." Clary jolted out of her trance and spun toward the voice. "Gurl, didn't you just grow up into a pretty 'lil thing, now didn't ya?"

A middle aged, well rounded, African-American woman was standing in front of Clary with a wide grin on her face. She was the same height as Clary (which isn't very tall) and had the funkiest looking hair Clary had every seen. It was dark and long – greying a bit at the roots, all braided and spun into a knot that was pinned to the top of her head. Completed with bits of colorful thread woven into it. "And let me tell you," She grinned good naturedly and pointed at Clary, "you were one goofy looking kid." The woman laughed and Clary smiled. "Now you probably don't remember me now, do ya?"

Clary shook her head apologetically, "'fraid not."

"Not to worry my dear." The woman said, "I wouldn't expect you to. You were just a young 'lil thing." She explained, "I looked after you when you and your daddy was in a fire not too long ago."

Clary beamed, "Well you didn't do too bad a job."

The woman chuckled, "I don't know about that." She joked, looking Clary up and down. Clary laughed. "I'm Texra, but y'all be calling me Tex now, got it?" She said, reaching a hand out toward Clary.

Clary met her hand and shook it. "I go by Clary now."

Tex reached out to hug Clary, taking her by surprise. Clary quickly adjusted and hugged her back. "It sure is good to see you, Clarissa." She said pulling away, holding Clary at arm-length, "No what do you say we go see that friend of yours now, huh?"

Clary nodded and Tex led her into the large room, walking past a few other patients in different beds.

Clary felt a pull on her heart, as she grew closer to Simon's lifeless form. If it weren't for the machines beeping at her telling her otherwise, she could have thought he was dead. She gulped. She had to remind herself he was just sleeping. Just sleeping.

She knew that Simon wasn't actually doing that bad, but it was hard to remind herself of the fact at the sight of him. The left side of his face was bruised, a green-purple color. His head was wrapped up in a bandage. She noticed his hair was still matted with dried, crusted blood. Bound tightly in cream bandages was his broken right arm. It was attached to his body so it rested on his chest.

There was a constant beeping and Clary noticed the little clip on one of his fingers of his left hand.

She lifted her hand to him and hesitated, looking up to Tex in question. She smiled down at her, "You can touch him, honey. Just be careful of his pulse-ox and the IV."

Clary nodded and slipped her hand into Simons. He was cold, but that was hardly surprising. He was always cold. Clary even teased him when they were little about him being a vampire.

Tex scribbled some readings down on a clipboard and then attached it back to the end of Simon's bed. "I'll be back in ten minutes, sweetie. If you need me for anything, press the call button on the side of the bed, got it?"

Clary nodded and Tex walked out. When her and Simon were alone, Clary looked up and around at the machines that moaned at her, taking them in. "You really outdid yourself this time." She said quietly, looking back down at him.

Despite everything, he looked peaceful in sleep. Angelic almost. Clary had the urge to draw him.

Most of the hospital room was empty. There were two other patients, one whose head seemed to be entirely wrapped in bandages. He made a groaning noise that made Clary jumped and turn to look at him. He was writhing around in pain, his head lolling from side to side. Clary felt like she should get up to go help him, but someone – a member of family perhaps – had just walked through the door and was walking over to him. She assumed it was a him.

The other patient was a small girl. She was sleeping, a nasal cannula was barely visible on her face and a small IV line ran from one of her little hands. Her parents sitting next to her, silent tears trailing down their faces, the mother had her head buried into the fathers shoulder.

Clary felt her heart swell at the sight of it. She averted her gaze quickly. She hated hospitals. Only bad memories could come from them. And she had a couple of her own she didn't need re-visiting.

Her heart sped up suddenly when the beeping – that had maintained a stable rhythm since she got here – started to quicken.

She looked quickly up at the monitor, the lines were going up and down quicker and she looked down to Simon. He was blinking, waking up.

Clary waited for him to get his baring's. His eyes wondered around the room, dazed and unfocused. "Where am I?" He asked, his voice raspy.

"Do you not remember?" She asked, a slow smile spreading on her lips.

His gaze travelled to Clary, zooming in and out of focus, "Clary?" He asked hesitantly.

Clary nodded, "Mmhm."

He groaned and lolled his head to the side, "Can someone tell me why I feel like I've been run over?"

Clary chuckled slightly, "Because you were."

Simon rolled his head back to her, "What?" He asked. Clary could tell he was still disorientated.

"You're in hospital." She tried to explain, "Do you remember anything?"

Simon groaned low in his throat. He lifted a hand to his head and pinched the bridge of his nose; "My head feels like someone's taken a hammer to it." He moaned, "I remember…" He trailed off in thought, "I was with you. And Jace and Max. Then… I went home?" He asked questioningly, looking up to Clary.

"Don't look at _me._"

His eyes lit up suddenly and Clary watched as the memories seemed to come flooding back to him. "Oh God." He said, pinching his nose harder.

"What?" Clary asked suspiciously.

"I went home and I -" He groaned again, and ran a hand over his face, "I walked in on my mom and… some guy."

Clary's eyes grew wide. The pieces started fit into the puzzle. She thought of Elaine thinking it was her fault, why she wouldn't come see Simon.

"We fought." Simon said, drifting off in thought. "I was turning to walk away from her… She started talking about how she missed Dad. Then she screamed… Then nothing." There was silence as they both took a moment to let it sink in. Clary was… shocked. Elaine was always telling Clary about days spent with Simon's father when they were younger. Tales of their wedding night, stories of how they met. Clary had never met Simon's father but she had an image of him as a tall, lanky, and slightly geeky man in his forties. Basically an older version of Simon with blonde hair.

"What happened?" He asked.

Clary shook her head, "I don't know much. She said you were hit by a car and rolled up onto the bonnet. The driver called an ambulance. They said you had a mild concussion, lots of bruises and cuts, and a broken arm."

Simons eyes grew wider and he looked down at his arm, noticing it for the first time. "Damn it. I liked this arm."

Clary rolled her eyes, "They didn't amputate it. You still have it."

Simon ignored her and wiggled his fingers, then grimaced. His eyes grew once more and his head snapped up to Clary, making him wince, "What about the Iceland trip?" He asked, "I can still go right?"

Clary shrugged, "I don't know. You know as much as I do now."

"Ah, I see sleeping beauty finally decided to open those handsome 'lil peepers of his." Simon and Clary both turned their heads to see Tex walking towards them, a girl was following close behind. "Lewis. How ya feeling?" Tex asked sternly.

"Fine uh, mam, thank you." Simon said awkwardly.

"This is Isabelle, she's here for work experience. Y'all mind?" Tex asked, gesturing to the girl behind her.

Simon and Clary both recognized her. Isabelle Lightwood. Sister of both Jace and Max. She was beautiful, no doubt. With long, dark wavy hair and legs that made her tower over Tex.

Clary had to pinch Simon to get a reaction out of him. He nodded hastily, and then shook it, "No, I don't mind."

"Nurse!" A shout came from across the room – the boy with a bandaged head.

"I'll be back in a jiff. Isabelle, you stay with them. You know the procedure by now." Tex said before rushing over to the wailing boy, "I'm coming, I'm coming." She muttered.

Isabelle stood their awkwardly before waving a hand, "Hey guys."

Being on the cheer team, they had never really ever spoken to one another. She could have the same opinion of Clary as Kaelie for all Clary knew.

Clary and Simon both waved a hand simultaneously.

"Hi." They said as one. Clary cringed.

Isabelle, however, giggled and walked over. "So what happened to you?" She asked, looking down at Simon.

Simon's jaw moved several times before he could draw out words, "I was in a car crash."

Isabelle's eyes widened, "My God." She said as she walked to the end of his bed, taking the clipboard in her hands.

Simon shrugged with his good arm, "It's nothing really." Clary resisted rolling her eyes.

Isabelle skimmed through the notes. "Are you feeling okay? How's your head? It says you have a concussion."

Simon swallowed, "Yeah, it hurts a bit."

Isabelle smiled at him and Clary could see Simon melt inside. Isabelle walked gracefully over to the IV port and pressed a few buttons. She turned back round to face them, "It should start to ease up a bit now. Take the edge off things."

Simon nodded, "Thanks."

Isabelle smiled at him, "No problem."

"So, do you want to be a doctor?" Clary asked.

Isabelle looked to Clary and shrugged, "I guess. I mean, I like it a lot. I'm just not sure yet." She said, "My Mom's a doctor here so…"

"That's cool," Clary enthused, "do you come here everyday?"

Isabelle nodded, "After school."

Tex quickly waddled over. "Sorry bout that," She breathed, "Everything okay?"

The three smiled and nodded at her in unison. She narrowed her eyes, "Well that wasn't creepy." She muttered.

"What wasn't creepy?" A voice piped up. The group turned to see Jace's emerging figure.

"The fact that you always seem to be able to appear in places unheard." Isabelle noted.

Jace smirked and his gaze wavered over the scene, doing a double take back to Clary and Simon, "What are you too doing here?" He asked.

Simon narrowed his eyes at Jace, "I got hit by a car." He said bluntly.

"Is Simone hurting?" Jace grinned, "Want me to kiss it better?"

"In your dreams Lightwood. You get none of this." Simon said, gesturing down at himself. Isabelle giggled, making Simon blush.

Jace leaned towards Clary, "He wants me to kiss it better." He whispered, loud enough for Simon to hear. Simon huffed and rolled his eyes.

"What'd you want Jace?" Tex asked.

Jace looked to Izzy, "I was passing on my way form school and was wondering if Izzy wanted a lift to go back home now or wanted to stay a bit longer."

Izzy was about to open her mouth in reply when Tex interrupted; "Well you can ask her later. I'm late on my rounds as it is. Now all of you, shoo." She said, batting her hand at us, "I need to be alone with Lewis. Isabelle can stay." She hesitated in thought and turned to look at Simon briefly, "Can Isabelle stay?" Simon nodded and Tex continued, "Isabelle can stay. The rest of you, out."

Jace, and Clary turned and walked out to the waiting room just outside. The chairs squeaked awkwardly as they sat themselves in the uncomfortable bright yellow, plastic excuse of furniture.

Clary bit her bottom lip nervously, she knew what Jace was going to ask her. But he was silent for so long that she thought he had forgotten.

"So are you going to tell me?" There it was.

Clary play decided to play it dumb and turned to him with innocent eyes, "Tell you what?

"Who hit you." He uttered.

Clary shook her head, "Can we just drop it? I can't tell you."

Jace nodded and looked down to his hands that were clasped in his lap, hanging lazily off his knees. "Can't or won't?"

"Does it matter?"

Jace seemed to take the hint and shifted in his seat. "So, is Lewis okay?"

Clary nodded, "Yeah. Just a bit battered. Nothing serious." Jace nodded in acknowledgement. "So how come you were so late out of school?" Clary asked.

Jace smirked, "Involuntarily volunteering at the pre-school. Ring a bell?"

Clary clapped a hand to cover her mouth, "I completely forgot! Newmans going to throttle me. I was so caught up with –"

Jace held up a hand, "It's cool. I got you covered."

Clary raised a suspicious brow, "How?"

He leaned back in his chair with confidence, "It's amazing what kinds of situations having a face like mine can get you out of." Clary hit his arm. He recoiled, "Ow. What was that for?"

"I don't know, get your head down out from you sphincter and then ask me. If you can find it that is." Clary said jokily.

"Fine." Jace said, sitting back in his chair again, "Next time, I wont convince Ms. Burberry not to tell Newman you forgot to come because you had a family crisis."

Clary sighed stubbornly and turned in her chair. Jace waited. Clary cracked. "Fine. I'm sorry." She muttered.

Jace put a finger to his ear, "Sorry. I couldn't quite hear-"

"I said I'm sorry," Clary huffed loudly, facing him.

Jace grinned smugly, "That's more –"

"- That you have such a big ego." She quickly added.

Jace opened his jaw in mock disbelieving. An evil look grew in his eyes, "Right, that's it Clarissa Morgernstern."

Clary was caught off guard and more than surprised when hands reached her stomach and started to tickle her. Shock was quickly worn away and replaced by the inability to breathe as she writhed around in the little chair. Laughs escaped her mouth traitorously and she tried to find breath in her to ask him to stop. His hands moved to her ribs and she squirmed, trying desperately to push them away.

"Jace," She managed, "Jace please." She laughed louder. Jace seemed to be finding her pain very amusing, laughing loudly to himself.

"I'm sorry." She tried between giggles, "I'm sorry. You don't have a big ego."

"Sorry what was that? I couldn't quite hear." _Dick._

Clary's chest hurt but she continued to giggle uncontrollably, "I said I'm –"

"Y'all can come in n-" Tex paused in the doorway at the sight of the two teenagers. "Okay."

Jace quickly stopped and Clary quickly sat up, trying valiantly to suppress her blush.

"By the way, Isabelle says she want's to stay longer." Tex said before muttering something about foolish teenagers under her breath and turning to walk out the door again.

"I should probably get going then." Jace said, standing up, followed by Clary. "Are you coming back here tomorrow?" He asked, Clary nodded. "Wait for me after school, I'll give you a lift."

"You sure?" She asked, but Jace was already halfway across the room.

He held up a hand over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow." He called.

"See you." Clary muttered.

She shook her head, smiling to herself, then turned to walk in Simon's direction.

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><p><strong>Reviews are happiness :D<strong>

**Suggestions and opinions - even more so.**

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><p><strong>~ 15 reviews: I'll update sometime this week<strong>

**~ 20 reviews: I'll update sometime in the next day or two**

**~ 25 reviews: I'll update the same day**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys. MERRY CHRISTMAS! (If you celebrate christmas that is). **

**Turns out when I was ill about a month ago, I had pneumonia. I've been feeling pretty bad ever since. I got a horrible chest infection so sorry if this is really badly written.**

**I can't believe we're nearly at 200 reviews. Seriously. Wow. **

**Please review - my christmas present? :D**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**8**

Jace didn't even come to the pre-school. He had some football thing he had to practice for.

Clary waited for him to finish, leaning against his car. The school had mostly cleared of students and his car was one of the only ones in the lot.

She wondered how her and Jace had become… friends? Is that what they were? Because just a couple of short weeks ago, they were hardly acquaintances. It was weird. People on the football team don't become friends with best friends of captains of the D&D club.

She was bought out of her daydream when she noticed a flash of gold out the corner of her eye. She turned to see Jace hurrying down the school steps. He was sweaty and still had his football shirt on. He jogged over to Clary, slowing down a few yards away, running a hand through his hair.

"Nice shirt." She commented, nodding to the mud-smeared and sweaty shirt.

"Cheers." He nodded, "I couldn't find my shirt. I think one of the guys took it as a joke."

"Funny."

"Very."

"Now I have to suffer through a car ride with that." Clary grimaced jokingly, gesturing to Jace up and down.

Jace smirked, "You don't like my shirt?"

"No." Clary said, "I don't like your sweat."

Jace raised a brow, a mischievous glint in his eye, "You know, that hurt. I think I may need a hug."

Clary's eyes grew wide as Jace advanced toward her, arms wide. "Jace. No." She said, putting her arms up in front of her and started to back away.

"Come on Clary," He grinned, "come give Jace a hug."

"No Jace. Seriously. I swear, if you –"

Jace lunged towards Clary and she turned to run away. She ran down the parking lot as if Jace were a psycho serial killer branding a machete and she was running for her life.

She turned her head to look over her shoulder, trying to see if he was still following. That was all he needed to quickly tackle her. She stumbled at the impact but she was firmly in his grasp, not able to fall.

She struggled to get out of his arms and he squeezed tighter. She was no match for the star athlete. "Ew. Jace! Stop it." She whined, but she was grinning. It was gross, why was she grinning?

She pushed harder at his arms, trying to get away.

"What do you say?" He asked.

She huffed and tried once more to get out of his arms, he tightened his grip, "What do you say?" He asked again. She couldn't see it, but she could hear the smirk in his voice.

Clary sighed, "I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"What was that?" Jace asked.

Clary rolled her eyes, then she had an idea. All of a sudden, she dropped all her weight to the floor, taking Jace by surprise and slipping out of his grasp. She stood up and grinned triumphantly at him, then pointed an accusing finger, "You touch me again and you'll regret it."

Jace smirked, "I'll regret it will I?"

Clary nodded confidently and Jace chuckled, "Alright there Ms Menacing, let's go see Simone." He said, turning to walk back to the car.

"It's Simon." Clary corrected, calling after him.

Jace lifted a hand over his shoulder and waved it, dismissing the thought, "Same thing."

Clary sighed and jogged to catch up with him.

"My backs all wet now." She groaned, pulling at the back of her shirt.

Jace chuckled and opened the passenger door for her then walked round to the drivers side.

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><p>Maia was sitting in the chair Clary had been the night before. Simon appeared to be sleeping and Isabelle was standing next to Maia, talking animatedly with her.<p>

"Oh hi guys," Isabelle whispered when she spotted Jace and Clary approaching.

Clary flashed her a smile, "How's he doing?"

Isabelle smiled, "Not bad," She said quietly, "his concussion's well gone. He just needs to sleep it off."

"He needs to sleep a lot of things off." Jace commented, Clary hit his arm.

"I heard that."

Everyone turned to Simons, the source of the mumble. He slowly blinked his eyes open. "Wow, what are we celebrating?" Simon said, taking in the number of people gathered around his bed.

"Your improvement in appearance." Jace commented, smirking. Clary hit him again and Izzy glared at him. The bruises on Simon's face had gone darker over night. He had a nasty looking black eye and the stitches on the side of his forehead stood out more.

Isabelle looked down at her watch then turned to her brother "Jace, we should go home. I'm driving." She said, gesturing for the car keys. He sighed and chucked them at her. She caught them one handed and turned to Simon "I'll see you tomorrow." She turned to the rest of the group, "See you guys." She said, flashing a grin and waving. Clary and Maia smiled and waved back. Isabelle turned and walked gracefully out the door. Jace followed after her and waved once behind him calling out after him, "See ya."

Tex walked in the moment they walked out. She looked flushed and out of bed. She looked around the room, noticing both the bandaged-head boy and the little girl were sleeping peacefully; she sauntered over to the trio.

"I don't believe we've met." She said, holding a hand out to Maia. Maia stood up and shook it, "No gurl, don't bother standing up for me. I'm Tex." She greeted as she shook the teens hand.

Maia smiled, "I'm Maia." She said, sitting back down in the chair.

"Nice to meet you, Maia." She said, then turned to Clary and nodded her greeting, "Clary."

"Hi Tex." Clary

"Now," Tex said, turning her attention to Simon, "How ya doing, Lewis?"

"Not bad." Simon said, pushing himself to sit further up in the bed, "Actually, I feel great. Absolutely fine."

Tex narrowed her eyes and gazed at him with suspicion, "Now this ain't got nothing to do with that school trip now, has it?"

Simon swallowed, shaking his head, "No mam." He said, "But, now we're on the topic, how's it looking?" He asked hopefully.

Tex shook her head, "I'm sorry honey, I don't know. You'll have to ask your doctor the next time he comes."

Simon nodded in understanding but hung his head. Then he turned to Clary, "What about you?" He asked hopefully, "Did we raise enough?"

Clary bit her lip hesitantly. Simon smiled, "I want you to go Clary, despite if I can go or not."

She nodded, her lips spreading in a slow smile, "We did. With fifty dollars to spare."

Simon grinned, "That's amazing!"

Clary nodded enthusiastically her agreement. She turned to Maia, "Are you going."

"I think so." She smiled.

"Did you get Valentine to sign the slip?" Simon asked, looking at Clary. Simon was the only person who knew about Clary's relationship with her father, or lack of relationship rather. He was the only one who she told her about her past to too.

He didn't know about the incident with him the other night yet. Clary thought she should keep it that way.

She looked back at him meaningfully, "Not yet."

Simon pursed his lips and nodded.

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><p>It was already dark outside, it being winter, and Jace stared out the window worriedly. He didn't trust Izzy's driving but she kicked up a fuss every time he didn't let her. And he trusted it even less in the dark on icy roads.<p>

The car swerved once again along the bumpy lining on the edge of the world. Isabelle pulled it hastily back onto the road, making the car jerk.

"How did you pass your test?" Jace asked.

Isabelle shot him a glare, "I'm not that bad. I've been complimented on it before." She said, sitting straighter in her seat.

"Izzy, you do realize when you find a little slip of paper saying 'parking fine' on your windscreen, they aren't complimenting you." Jace smirked.

Isabelle hit his arm, "That was one time! I had just passed my test. What was I meant to think?" She fought, indicating off to the right and turning the car sharply down a different alley.

Jace's shoulder hit the side of the car from the impact. He grimaced and rubbed it. "Um, Iz? Did your driving skills rub off on your sense of direction?"

Isabelle grinned, "We're taking a detour." She said, indicating again to the left and pulling into a small parking lot in front of a little shop.

Jace read the sign and his eyes flung open, "Oh hell no." He exclaimed, "Izzy, you said we were going home."

"You wouldn't have come if I told you." She grinned wickedly.

Jace glared at her. "Izzy. We're going home. Now."

Isabelle raised an eyebrow and stepped out the car, taking the car keys with her. _Damn._

"I booked you an appointment." She said, "Come on Jace, I know you've been in pain for days."

Jace frowned, his jaw sending a sharp wave of pain through his mouth as if to prove her point.

"You just wouldn't admit it cause you don't want to go to the dentist. You can't hide from them forever." She said, frowning when Jace still didn't budge. "Get out the car, Jace." She said sternly.

Jace knew better than to mess with Isabelle when she was being stubborn - he had learnt from many past experiences. He huffed and got out the car, walking grudgingly towards the dentist. Isabelle laughed softly to herself as she mentally compared him to a three year old having a tantrum.

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><p>"Well, Mr. Lightwood, I have a relatively easy fix for you," Dr Carter, a middle aged blonde woman, said peeling off her blue latex gloves and dropping them in the trashcan. <em>Here it comes<em> Jace thought. "You need to have your wisdom teeth removed.

"What?!" Jace exploded from his perch on the rickety exam table. Isabelle tried to suppress her grin, Jace very rarely lost his cool – especially in front of other people. Apparently dentists were an exception. "Uh-uh. No way. Not happening." Jace said, waving his hands in an 'absolutely not' fashion.

Dr Carter seemed amused; she raised an eyebrow to Isabelle, "Not a fan of dentists?"

Isabelle glanced at Jace's freaked expression, "You could say that." She laughed.

"I refuse. Come on Iz, lets go. He said, picking up his jacket and swinging it on in one smooth motion. "My wisdom teeth aren't going anywhere. They're coming with me." Izzy didn't move position from leaning against the door, effectively blocking Jace's exit.

"Not if you want to get rid of the pain they're not." Carter said sternly, "And there are a lot of complications that can occur from impacted wisdom teeth. If you think your hurting now – just you wait. And you'll have to come back a lot more." She said, an impish expression on her face. Isabelle smirked, the doctor knew where to play her cards. "They really do need to come out sooner rather than later, Jace."

Seeing Jace's hesitant expression, the doctor walked over the her desk in the corner of the room. She scribbled something down and ripped the paper off a small pad. She extended her arm with the slip towards Jace, "These will help with the pain until you get them removed."

Jace snatched the paper and stuffed it in his pocket, turning to leave again. "Come on Izzy, we're leaving."

"I wrote the name and number of a great oral surgeon I know personally on the back of the prescription."

Isabelle moved from the door and Jace stalked out of the room. She smiled apologetically to the docter, "Thanks doc. He is grateful… he just doesn't know it. "

The doctor smiled, "No worries. Just make sure he gets that appointment."

"Will do." Isabelle waved and left the room for her brother.

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><p><strong>Once again MERRY CHRISTMAS!<strong> **I will try to update after boxing day, but there will probably be loads of family over.**

**Please review - tell me what you thought.**

**I'm really scared of what you guys think of the Clace? Is it okay? I'm not great at writing fluff.**

**SHOUTOUTS: I'm Not u, lindsayhonaker (**thanks for always reviewing - they all make me really happy :D And thank you for the suggestion - i'm going to use it next chap**), Rislassiter, Fiery1703, JakuraAngel (**n'aww, thanks:)**), all the Guests, S.L (**thank you. I really hope it doesn't come off too cliche - that's my aim. So thank you for pointing it out - it made me really happy**), TheArtist667 (**Haha! N'aw. Thanks. Your review made me laugh :D**), Arelia Miles (**Thank you as always ;) Ha ha, why are your hands so cold? X**), Taang - Shipper, AWEE, LoverGirl, ashnicatthelibrary (**Haha, what personal life? ;)**), Greyeyes17, REVANGE4EVER (**I plan on finishing it, I'm no quitter Xx**), Fangirl407, Liz399 (**Thank you! And cheers - i think I accidentally uploaded the wrong chapter, oops**).**

**as well as (for last chapter) sarahstacksarah, reemarie36 (**thanks so much for all the reviews! Merry xmas!**), A Paper Girl From A Paper Town ( **haha, that made me laugh:D)**, Rebecca Fairchild (**Yours also made me laugh, thank you for leaving it!**) XPSkyloverXP, therealClary (yours made me smile... a lot, so thank you.)**

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><p><strong>I'm going to do a review reply here to some of the questions asked that might benefit you all.<strong>

_Any idea how long this story will be (asked by DreamSlyrtherin177710) -_** I hope it will be reasonably long. Im not really sure yet. I'll have to see if people still like it I guess, haha. **

_Are Jace's eyes blue or gold in this story (divergentislife4) -_ **Hmmm... good question. I don't know yet. What do you prefer? I'll let you chose and use it later :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**WAHAHAH! 200 reviews?! I love you guys - so much. This makes me so much more happier than it should. ****Wah!**

**Dedicated to Lindsayhonaker - my 200th reviewer. Thank you so much! Xxxxx**

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**9**

Tonight was the last time Clary would have a chance. She was going to try, she didn't care what the consequences were.

After the episode the other night, she had been terrified of her father, sneaking round the house to avoid him at all costs. But she needed that signature. And she was going to get it. Well, she was going to _try _to get it at least.

He had been drinking again. She could smell it the second she walked into the living room. Her heart froze as she thought back to the other night, stopping herself in the doorway.

He was where he normally was, sitting on the sofa, a beer bottle hanging lazily from his hands as he watched some rerun of some old TV show on the little satellite screen they had. Normally, she wouldn't have been afraid to approach him. She could approach him anytime she wanted to; she just tended to avoid it. But unlike normally, it seemed like a physical incapability. Her legs wouldn't move, her mind consumed by images she never wanted to revisit. It took a moment to push them away and focus on what she was seeing here and now.

They hadn't spoken since poker night, not that it wasn't uncommon for them to go without conversing with each other for weeks – even if they did live in the same house. But this time it made Clary uneasy.

She turned, maybe she could come back once he'd sobered up? Who was she kidding; he would only drink more as the night progressed. He was as sober as he was going to get until the deadline. It was now or never.

Suddenly, she didn't want to go on the trip. The stupid trip wasn't worth this. She started to walk away when one of the floorboards under her creaked. Clary shut her eyes.

Valentine turned at the sound and caught sight of the redhead in the doorway. He shook his head and turned back to the TV.

Something inside her snapped. Now she was angry. What kind of daughter should be afraid of speaking to their Dad? As her father, he shouldn't have ever made her feel like this. He should never treat her as though he never wanted her in the first place. But he had, and Clary knew he had because she could remember when he loved her – though, only barely. She could remember telling her so. What happened? Surely you forgave the ones you loved? Clary took a shaky breath. But did you forgive those you loved if they were the reason the rest of your family was dead? Maybe not.

He did want her once upon a time but maybe not now. Clary's heart clenched, she always felt as though the tiniest bit of him cared. It was only now she realized that he didn't at all. And he never would. Since she was seven, not once had he ever come to a school play. He had never picked her up from school, never been to a parents meeting. And he had never wanted any physical or emotional contact, let alone tell her he loved her.

She could vaguely remember the days after the fire. Mostly, she remembered pain. What condition the fire had left her physically and how it had taken all of her family were to blame for that. Losing her mother and brother was bad. But losing someone who was alive was almost worse.

Valentine started with the shouting, then the drinking, and then the drunken shouting. Depressed? Not that Clary could remember, he must've good at hiding it. But it must have been the worst kind of depression he had fallen into, one that completely ate at and destroyed your soul. Leaving only a shell of your former self with a completely new being trapped inside. And what comfort was a seven year old? Not much. Just a reminder of what you lost.

She remembered be terrified of this new person. Because that's what he was. Unrecognizable from the wonderful father he was before. From the person who protected the evils the world had to offer from his little girl.

Her brother had helped with that too. He was always looking out for her. Out of all of them, her memory was strongest of her big brother. She remembered how they hardly ever fought. He always talked to her about her troubles, stood up for her against school bullies. She remembered him teaching her how to fight one day, in the back yard. After some kids had been mean to her, she made her brother promise not to tell her parents and he agreed on the condition that he taught her how to throw a punch correctly. She smiled sadly at the memory.

Then there was the time he had saved her life, pulling her out of the way of a car when she ran out onto the road, catching a ball Simon had thrown. The second time he had saved her life had cost him his own.

Clary hadn't realized she was crying until tears started to fall off her cheeks, making her shirt wet.

They were closer than any siblings Clary met nowadays. She wondered if they would be like that now. She certainly pictured them being so when she imagined all of her family alive again.

She had looked up to him so much. So much so that she used to copy habits he did, passions he had, sayings he liked. Jon was only two years older than herself but she remembered him like a hero

She gripped the end of her sleeve in her fist and quickly wiped at her eyes.

She laughed bitterly to herself, if only her brother could see her now, cowering to speak to her father.

With that thought, she walked up to her father and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What'd ya want?" He slurred, looking up at her bemusedly.

Clary wanted so badly to go to her room and not see him again. Images of the other night flashed through her mind.

_No_. He's your father, she thought. He wasn't some sort of monster, he was human. Was she seriously scared this much of another human being? She internally slapped herself, telling herself to get a grip.

"Can you sign this?" She asked, her voice wasn't quite as strong as she intended it to sound but it was better than nothing.

He looked down to the piece of paper she held out in her hand. It was crumpled and had wrinkles all over it. He eyed it once than turned his charcoal-beady gaze back up to her. "I said I wasn't signing nothing."

Clary hurried to her argument, "But I have the money now." He looked up at her in half-hearted suspicion, "You said you wouldn't sign it because I didn't have the money. Well now I do." She elaborated. She fumbled nervously as she pulled out a brown envelope from her back pocket.

Valentine snatched the brown package from her grasp and tore it open, a wad of cash held together with a hair tie falling on this lap. He picked it up and started flicking through the notes. Clary felt a copper taste as she bit down on her lip, her hand twirling knots into the tips of her hair.

"What is this?" He asked. Clary couldn't tell what was in his voice. Suspicion? Anger? Confusion?

"Six hundred and twenty five dollars." She said anxiously.

"What the bloody hell is this!? Where did you get this from?" He yelled, all of a sudden on his feet.

Clary stepped back as what she dreaded started to happen before her. "You stole it from me?" He asked, though it wasn't really a question.

Valentine's eyes were on fire. Charcoal orbs set alight. She could feel the anger radiate off him.

"No, no." She stuttered, "I didn't steal it. I-"

She was interrupted as Valentine flew from the room, heavy footsteps thudding up the stairs.

She stood, stunned to the spot for a moment, before she ran up the stairs after him.

She found him in his bedroom, a safe opened on the bed and he was counting how many wads of cash he had. Clary gaped. He had this much money? How had he got so much? He didn't have a job. He never earnt anything, never bought anything. He left all the buying to me, and all the earning. Every holiday she had to get a stupid job at the local freaking bookstore, trying to earn enough money try to pay for _both_ of our basic human needs until next holiday. And meanwhile he was stocked up with what? Thousands of dollars?

He was throwing each wad of cash haphazardly onto the bed. There was enough there to pay for her university fees and still have more to spare. Ha ha, as if he'd use it on me.

She could see him mumbling to himself as he counted, his bleach-white hair in stark contrast to the pink flush sporting on his face. When he finally had ran out of money to count he looked up at Clary with confusion, which quickly turned into anger. He strode across the room in two strides, appearing right in Clary's face, "Where. Did. You. Get. That. Money. From?" He fumed, his veins standing out on his forehead.

Clary took a breath and quickly found her voice. She was just as pissed, if not more. Where had he got that money from? What was he saving for? "I told you. I didn't steal it." She said, less shakily than she would've expected, "I earned it."

Valentine scoffed, "Who would employ your scrawny ass? Other than that weedy nerd at that fucking bookstore."

"No one." Clary said, standing her ground. He only looked angrier at her defiance, but she was too stubborn to back down. "I sold art in a market. After school. Every day."

Valentine glared at her. Clary stared right back at him, the same Morgernstern fire burning in her eyes as it did in his. She thought this would only get her in more trouble than she was already in, but she didn't care. She was too angry to care.

There was no noise for a long moment, only the sound of both of their heavy breathing.

Then, Valentine did something unexpected. He swiped the small, battered permission slip from Clary's hands and pulled out a pen from his shirt pocket.

He moved to push the paper up against the wall, scribbling his signature at the bottom of the paper. When he turned to Clary, she was staring at him in shock. He moved over to her once more, holding the slip up in his firm grasp.

"We're even now okay. From the other night."

Clary's shock only deepened. He was… _apologizing_? Valentine Morgernstern – the most stubborn, bitter man Clary had ever known was apologizing to his good-for-nothing daughter?

She nodded her head frantically and he gave the slip back to her.

When he shoved passed her and back down the stairs, no doubt to bring out the Jack, she stared down at the slip. A wide grin split itself on the face.

* * *

><p>Simon had never been one for wearing his heart on his sleeve. But, around Isabelle, he felt so free to tell her about things, things he had only ever told Clary. Not even Rebecca.<p>

He shared memories with her of him and his dad, or him and Clary. And over the past couple of days (had it really only been two days?) he had gotten to know her pretty well too. Things she was a bit more secretive about, like how her mother kept pushing her into going into medicine, but she had her own dreams of going into law. Or how her little brother scared her sometimes. Having Cystic Fibrosis, he was always in hospital for pneumonia or some other horrible thing. She said she hadn't let anyone know that. She couldn't tell her family how scared she was for her little sibling, he was their family too and she would only scare them more with her fears.

She also told him of lighter subjects; funny stories of her and her brothers, what kind of foods she liked, her suspicions of the sexuality of her eldest brother.

Simon couldn't tell if she was saying all of this stuff to him because she felt sorry for him being in the hospital, or maybe the fact that she was bored being at the hospital and she was just telling her things. He was pretty sure it wasn't that – or at least he hoped it wasn't. He was starting to like her. The hours they spent together at the hospital laughing with each other while Simon was meant to be resting and Izzy was meant to be working was giving him reason for quickly falling for her.

He loved Clary and Maia's company, but it got him all fuzzy whenever Izzy came in and sat herself into the chair next to him. He still didn't understand why a girl like her would talk to a guy like him for hours on end each day. That was the only thing that gave him doubt. They had never spoken before the night of the accident. She was definitely the most stunning person in the school and Simon… well, not so much. He had to be one of the biggest nerds the school had to offer. He was captain of the D&D club for Christ's sake. What could he possibly have to offer the beautiful girl he had an undying crush for that some buff, muscular jock couldn't?

But still, even if he didn't have a chance with her, it didn't mean he couldn't get to know her. They sometimes did talk about things that were out of there comfort zones but something she bought up that evening was something he almost choked at.

"So what was the fight with your mother about?" She asked, her large doe, dark eyes looking right into Simons.

It caught Simon off guard. He hadn't even told Clary about the fight yet. He didn't know if he was ready to revisit the whole thing yet.

When she saw him hesitate, she spoke up again, "I've been fighting with my parents recently too." She said, looking down, playing with the hem of her t-shirt. "They've been… arguing a lot. I think they've started to pick up on Alec's… secret. He hasn't told them yet. He had a very coded talk with me about it, which I think was his way of coming out. But it's so obvious. I hate how he feels like he's done something wrong. And I hate my parents even more for making him feel like he's done something wrong. I don't like how it's affecting Alec, but I don't like how it's affecting Max either. He's still so young, he doesn't need to hear his parents screaming at each other 'til their hoarse."

Simon didn't know what to say. What could you say to something like that? More than anything he just wanted to reach out and put his hand on hers reassuringly. He realized that he had done just that with a wave of mortifying embarrassment. He moved to pull it away, muttering a 'sorry', when she clasped onto it, holding it in hers. She smiled warmly back up at him and Simon felt his face flush red, his heart pounding in response to the physical contact. She wove her fingers through his until they were intertwined.

"I walked in on my mom with some guy." He said suddenly. Isabelle gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand.

"I haven't seen my Dad in about a year now and I catch her with some stupid blonde." Isabelle squeezed his hand reassuringly, urging him to continue. "I don't know. I was just… so mad. It all went so quickly. I ran out of the house and she followed after me. She kept telling me how she did love my Dad, that she didn't want to hurt him. Something about how it was so hard… But if she loves him so much, surely it shouldn't be that hard? Surely she should be able to suppress her… sexual… urges." Isabelle could see him cringe and she had to fight from giggling, it was so cute, "Ugh" he groaned, wiping his free hand down his face, "I wish I could erase it from my memory." He said and this time she did giggle. It was the sweetest thing Simon had ever heard.

And what he loved even more about her, she knew exactly what he needed. She didn't tell him to go talk it out with her, that he should try make up with her. He just needed some space. He deserved to be mad, he wasn't ready to forgive her yet. Maybe she knew from her own experiences with fights with her parents. So, instead of asking him if she could get his mom into the hospital room to come see him – which he was sort of expecting – she asked something completely different. "So where are you going to stay when you get out of hospital?"

Simon looked up at her with a thankful look. He couldn't bare seeing his mom right now. Then he pondered the question over. Where was he going to stay? He would say Clary's but he had learnt it was never best to stay over at Clary's – her dad didn't like it. She usually went over to Simons most nights.

"Um… I hadn't thought of that."

"You could stay at mine." She blurted out very uncharacteristically, then blushed which was even more unlike her. "I mean, my mum's a doctor. She could look out for you, make sure you're okay." She explained quickly. Simon deflated slightly and she hurried to correct herself, "And it would also be an excuse to hang out with you more." She said, and then looked up, lifting her hand to stroke her chin in mock thought, "Hmm… then again, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea now I think about it."

Simon scoffed and threw a cotton ball that was on the side of his bed at her.

She giggled and threw it back at him with a lot more force Simon flinched, "Ow." This only made Izzy laugh more, "Maybe I don't want to stay with you anyway, you're abusive."

Izzy huffed and picked up the cotton wool holding it in the air, "Really Simon? Abusive?"

Simon held up his hands in front of his face and pretended to shy away, "Please. No more. I beg of you."

Isabelle only laughed and hit him lightly on the arm, sitting back in her chair, "But seriously," she said, changing the subject back, "Our house is huge. We have enough rooms. You could stay with us. My mom wouldn't mind."

"And your Dad?"

"Has learnt to agree with everything Mom decrees." Isabelle grinned. Simon knew she was excluding the fights between her parents.

"Then yeah, I'd love to."

* * *

><p><strong>THE NEXT DAY<strong>

Clary walked through the hospital doors bang on four pm – the biggest grin slapped on her face; Simon was out of hospital today. The second the bell rang for the end of school, she was leaping out of her seat and running for Jace's car. He came out five minutes later to find her hopping round the passenger side as if she had really needed the toilet for three days. He had done the classic Jace chuckle and, after Clary's pleading, he unlocked the car and they both drove straight to the hospital.

When she finally got to his room, she found him sitting eagerly perched on the side of his bed. Isabelle was standing nearby and nurse was questioning him about how he felt, a clipboard in her right hand that she copied down his replies in to.

"Clary!" He beamed excitedly as he spotted the redhead over the nurse's shoulder.

Jace looked to Isabelle confusedly, "How did you get here so fast?"

"I had a free period last lesson." She explained.

"You didn't skive any lessons, did you Isabelle?" A dark haired woman Clary believed to be Maryse Lightwood, Isabelle and Jace's mother. She was dressed in a smart black skirt and white blouse, a stethoscope hung round her neck and a name tag pinned to her shirt – the typical doctor appearance. "Free periods are still lessons."

Isabelle just glared heatedly at her, clearly stating she shouldn't be getting any sass from her. Had they had a fight? Maryse seemed to ignore it and turned to Simon, "So, Simon. You ready to get out of here?" She asked, grinning. Simon beamed and nodded enthusiastically. "I asked your mom and she agreed to letting you stay with us for as long as you want to."

Clary raised her brows, that was new. She turned to Jace in question but he just shrugged – he didn't know either. Then it clicked; the fight. Was it really that bad? She still hadn't questioned him about it yet. Isabelle must've told him he could stay. He must've told her about it. She tried to ignore the pang of jealousy, or hurt, that he'd told Isabelle before her, but brushed it away quickly. She knew he had a crush on her – that much was obvious. It was good he was confiding in someone else as well as Clary.

"Well, hospital rules." Maryse said, taking out a wheelchair from against the wall and wheeling it up next to Simon.

Simon groaned staring at the contraption, "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Maryse replied, no-nonsense.

"I can walk fine." Simon complained. Maryse only pushed the chair closer, gesturing for him to sit in it.

Simon's face flushed in embarrassment as he lowered himself into the wheelchair.

The group all made their way to the front of the hospital and out of the doors. Maryse stopped pushing Simon and told him he could walk now. "Well that was fun." Simon grumbled, recovering from his hurt pride, "I feel so much better now. It's like I was never hit by a car."

Everyone laughed at him and Maryse smiled, "I'll see you at home. Isabelle will show you to your room."

Simon thanked her and Maryse went back inside the hospital.

"Shit!" Isabelle gasped, looking at her watch.

We all turned to her, "What?" Clary asked.

"Jace has to be at the oral surgeon in half an hour!" She exclaimed. "I can't take Simon back and then drive there in time. And Simon isn't aloud to drive yet."

"Jace could go by himself, he bought his car here." Clary said in confusion.

Izzy laughed and looked warily at Jace, "I don't trust him. He wont go if I'm not there." She grinned evilly, "Jacey-wacey doesn't like the dentist now does he?" She teased in the most patronizing tone she could pull, pinching her brothers cheek. Jace batted her hand away irritably.

Clary and Simon laughed, "You're scared of the dentist?" Simon grinned amusedly.

Jace pointed a threatening finger at him, "Shut it."

The pair only laughed harder, Isabelle joining them.

Jace fought determinedly to change the subject, "Well, Clary could drive Simon to our house. You could take me to the dentist." He suggested.

"She doesn't know the way." Simon said.

Clary nodded, "Yeah, I've never been to your house."

Isabelle smiled mischievously, "Oh, okay. Well, you could go to the dentist with Jace to make sure he goes and I can take Simon back to mine." She winked at Clary, making her blush, "We'll meet back at the house when you're done." She said, turning back to Clary, "Get Jace to give you directions to where we live in the car, you're probably going to have to drive him back home."

Jace stepped forward, "Wait, why can't I drive?" He asked warily.

Isabelle looked to him cheekily, grabbing Simon's arm behind her, "Because you won't exactly be yourself when you're done." She quickly hurried off to her car. Simon was caught by surprise as his arm was yanked but he quickly caught on and ran to the passenger seat, Isabelle moving round the drivers side.

"Wait!" Jace yelled after them, moving towards the car, "Isabelle Lightwood! You never said anything about-"

"Bye Jace!" She called and was already starting to drive away. But she quickly slowed down to roll down her window to shout to Clary, "Make sure you film it for me!" She winked and drove off.

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><p><strong>So let me know what you think! I need suggestions on loopy Jace on local <strong>**anaesthesia!**

**And please let me know what you think of the Sizzy. Too cliche?**

**And what do you think of Valentine? it would be interesting to know.**

**Thanks for reading! (Also, do you like Tex's character? Should she come back? or should I leave her?)**

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><p><span><strong><em>SHOUTOUTS<em>**

**All the Guests (**They made me laugh, thanks for reviewing!**), mortallovergirl (**merry christmas to you too! Ahah, I'm glad you like the dentist idea. If you have any, I would _love_ suggestions for a drugged up, loopy Jace X**), GinerNinjaaa (**this is totally unrelated but can I just comment on the ingeniousness of your pen name. It's inspired. Thanks for reviewing!**), thang-shipper (I** replied to your question below. Thank you for reviewing - I'm glad you're liking it x**), S.L (**I'm so glad you liked the Clace tickle war thing - do you think it was too soon int heir relationship? or was it okay? I'm nervous. :S x**), I'm not u (**yeah, pneumonia sucked. It wasn't bad enough to got the hospital or anything. But I'm just nervous cuz I'm meant to be going skiing next week and I'm still recovering :S we'll see how I do on the mountains. But thanks for your concern, and I'm so happy you like it, thank you x**), Arelia Miles ( **I am so angry at myself - I haven't replied to your PM! I always update and sign in to fanfic really late (it's like 2.23 am rn) so I feel I never have energy cuz i just want to sleep, telling myself I'll do it in the morning, and then i forget! But anyway, WhoOo! 200! *bows*. Ahah! Marking his territory with his sweat! That made me laugh so much! I'll talk to ya in the morning :)** x), Olympicnerd84 (**Aw, thanks. I'm glad you started to like it. And I like how you're honest. If you don't mind - what made you not sure? Just as a learning curve so I can improve (I only started writing like a few months ago so I don't know much). Merry Xmas to you too! How was it? X**), Demonpoxjohnnyboy (**Thank you! I'm so happy you like it, and thank even more so for your review. X**), TheRubyRed (**ahah, gold it is then ;) x**), RoyalCrown29 (**Yeah, I can't wait either. Hopefully it should be soon. Thanks for reviewing!x**), XPSkyloverXP (**ahah, glad you like it. I thought he should have a fault - not everyone is perfect. And I also thought it would deb funny - sorry Jace ;) x**), ashnicatthelibrary (**Thanks for PM'ing me. I'm glad you don't think i'm rushing the Clace - cuz that's what Im most worried about. Ahah, I'm glad you like this. Your review and PM made me really happy :)** ), (**Thanks for the suggestion, I was originally going to make Isabelle go with him to the dentists, but you made me think bette r- so thanks x**), Lindsayhonaker (**can I just say how much I love you? Every TMI fanfic I read I always see you're name in the shoutouts. I love how you take the time to review - and not just 'please update' you actually help us and support us in each chapter. So thanks for taking the time - I really appreciate and I acknowledge you do it for everyone else's you read and that makes me more happy. So thanks. Xxxx**), REVANGE5EVA (**I replied to your question below :) and thank you fro reviewing - I will make his eyes gold :) x**) **

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><p>Questions asked you might want to know the answer to-<p>

1 ~ _How many chapters will there be? (_asked by REVANGE5EVA & tang-shipper) **- Hmm. I'm not really sure. I know it will be fairly long. I want to say about ****twenty, but thinking about how quickly we've got to nine, it may be longer. Or shorter. Who knows? But it should be fairly long I think. I haven't planned the chapters, I've just got loads of ideas in my head. So I have no idea tbh. **

2 ~ _Will Jon come back? (_I couldn't remember or find who asked this, but I remember it was asked.) **- Well. I wasn't planning on it, but if anyone has any ideas on how to bring him back to life I'm all ears. Cause I have one idea, but it's really cliche. So I'm not sure. But I'm all ears if ****anyone has any ideas X**

3 ~ _Y you so bad at spelling? **- **_**I am dyslexic, so sorry if I get something wrong. If you could point them out - that might help a lot. But it might also be the fact that I'm awful at re-reading through - I always update so late and I'm always like, meh, I'll look through in the morning. And I don't. And for that I am sorry. *hangs head in shame***


	10. Chapter 10

**Happy New Year's eve, eve everyone! I might not be able to post until late next week. I have new year shenanigans and then I'm going skiing :D, so I'll try and update while I'm out there.**

**After reading this chapter, please don't be like 'Jace was so out of character'... cause that's the point. I thought I would show a side to him not many people write about. Sorry if you hate it. I really hesitated in posting this, but you all seemed enthusiastic about loopy Jace so...**

**And I tried to fit in all your requests - thanks so much for sending them!**

PS - someone said I should change the cover photo cause it didn't fit the story. When I looked at Image uploader thing it said I had to own the image? So the picture is actually of me. Sorry if it doesn't fit your imagination of Clary - I just thought, who do I have pictures of with red hair? Wait, I have red hair. So sorry if you don't like it.

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><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**10**

"I hate this." Jace said for the tenth time.

They hadn't even gotten to the dentist yet. In fact, they had just left the hospital. Clary had to fight from laughing at him, apparently he really hated the dentist. This was unexpected.

"Wrong way." Clary said, catching him out when he indicated the wrong direction. She suspected he was trying to get 'lost' on the way and miss his appointment. "Jace, you do realize I've been to this oral surgeon before. I know where it is."

Clary could see his expression that clearly said 'dammit' run across his face. She put a hand to her mouth to cover her smile, masking the beginnings of a laugh with a cough.

Jace quickly looked to her, then moved his gaze back to the road, "Ha, ha. Very funny."

She suddenly felt bad; she wasn't scared of the dentist herself, but she had had to help Simon through his fear of clowns at numerous birthday parties when they were younger. Not to mention she was absolutely terrified of heights.

"It'll be fine Jace," She tried to comfort him, even if she felt odd doing so, "I know of loads of people who have got their wisdom teeth out. They came out fine, they said they actually kind of enjoyed it." That was a lie. She knew of one person who had gotten their wisdom teeth out and they said they had never been in so much pain afterward. And it was their friends that had been there that found it funny and enjoyed it. But a little white lie wasn't going to hurt anybody. And he seemed to take in some sort of comfort in her words. "So tell me where you live." She asked, changing the subject.

Jace looked at her and smirked, an eyebrow raised, "But we haven't even gone on our first date yet." He joked. Clary rolled her eyes and scoffed at his predictable response, she should have expected it. She sometimes didn't believe there was a serious bone in his body.

"You don't have to tell me." She said tactically, "I could leave you at the dentist, wait for Izzy to come. Or -"

"Okay, okay." Jace said, holding a hand up to silence her. "No way am I staying in that hell hole any longer than I have to." Clary grinned triumphantly, "You go back to the hospital, get on the main road, turn right at the McDonalds. It's the second lane on the left, the first house."

She nodded; she knew where it was. "And on the left, we have the dentist." She pointed when she noticed Jace was about to drive straight past it. Jace sent her a look of betrayal as he pulled in, Clary rolled her eyes at him.

* * *

><p>The waiting room was literally Purgatory; the space between heaven and hell. Hell being the little sterile white room hidden behind the teasingly innocent looking door. Heaven being anywhere else.<p>

Jace's legs bobbed up and down impatiently as he sat in one of the little squeaky seats. Clary was at the desk, signing forms that said she would take him home instead of his legal guardians. Maryse had faxed the rest of the consent forms needed for his operation; he was all ready to go. He just had to wait for the actual surgeon to be ready, the inconsiderate asshole. Making him wait in the stupid waiting room, letting his thoughts carry him away. He just wanted to get it over and done with.

He spotted a group of dentists in their scrubs standing in the corridor a little way off. They all started to laugh. He bet one of them was telling a story of how they accidently stabbed some guys gums with a shard of metal, telling him the bleeding was because he didn't floss enough.

"They're plotting something."

He hadn't realized he'd said that out loud, or that Clary had just sat down next to him until she started laughing.

"Lightwood?" Someone called. The pair looked up to see another dentist clad in a white coat open the door and peer out.

Clary had to elbow Jace in the arm to get him to stand up. He turned to her, "You coming?" He hoped it was asked casually, but he knew she could see he wanted her to come.

She nodded, "I'm not sure if I'm aloud to but we can ask."

Jace walked to the blue-masked man with Clary right behind him. Did they even have mouths?

"Can she come in?" He asked, nodding to Clary.

"Sorry, she can't-" He paused when he saw the look Jace bet Clary was giving him. But when he turned to look at her, she changed her expression to a neutral one. "Well, she can stay until we actually have to start the operation."

Jace nodded curtly and walked into the room.

He shuddered, the smell of latex and disinfectant instantly igniting unease in his stomach.

He ignored it and sat down tentatively on the blue, plastic chair, feeling extremely out of his comfort zone. His eyes wondered over the display of pointy metal demon tools and he instantly received a wave of pain through his jaw.

A little TV was attached to the wall in the corner of the room, playing some kid show. Ha ha, as if the Teletubbies could ever make hell enjoyable.

"Not a fan of the dentist, huh son?"

When Jace didn't answer, Clary stepped in, "Not exactly."

Well that was an understatement. Of the largest magnitude.

The Doctor chuckled, "Not to worry, not many people do. I don't know how we make friends." He joked and Clary laughed politely. Jace, however, didn't find this funny. He knew why: they were sadists. "There's nothing to worry about, I assure. I've done this operation plenty of times, and it rarely goes wrong."

Jace did a double take to the doctor. Rarely? So it _did_ go wrong. That's it. He was done. He started to stand, ready to bolt, but he felt a hand push him back down.

Clary gave him a stern, yet stern, look. A no-nonsense kind of attitude. It reminded him of Isabelle, or Maryse.

"Why don't you lie down, son?"

He glared heatedly at the doctor but moved to lie down in the cold chair, watching the man warily. Once he was in position, he looked down at himself, his feet pointing up at the end of the chair. He was sure this image was how most of his nightmares started. He closed his eyes and gripped the arm rests tightly.

He felt the petite nurse/assistant dentist person wrap a napkin around his neck and Jace thought of what he was going to leave in his will.

He looked up to see Clary trying to hold in laughter. He could imagine he looked ridiculous. It actually made him feel better. He gave her a threatening look, but smiled in amusement too. This finally broke through her thin barrier and she started to laugh. He was glad she had come with him – it made him feel more at ease.

He was so distracted by Clary that he hardly noticed the nurse - she said her name was Kate - give him a shot in the arm and slip an IV needle into his hand.

"You might feel sleepy in a moment, but you don't have to go to sleep if you don't want." The dentist said from across the room, slapping a pair of latex gloves on his hands.

As he said it, Jace began to feel the affects of the drugs kick in. He felt lightheaded. When did he get so tired?

"Sorry Miss but you're going to have to leave. We'll call you back in when we're finished."

Jace felt like he should be panicking, but he couldn't bring himself to feel stressed. In fact, he felt the _complete_ opposite of stressed. He was sad as he saw the flash of red vanish behind the door though. He was going to say so when his eyes started drooping.

* * *

><p>Clary hated waiting rooms. She had experiences in them she never wished to revisit.<p>

There was the time Simon had broken his arm when he fell out of a tree. They had spent hours in one, waiting for someone to see him. She remembered hating seeing him in pain for so long. They were only young at the time, maybe five years old. But Clary had insisted on waiting with him, even if she couldn't go in to see the doctor with him.

The worst was definitely the night her mother died. Most of it was a blur, but she did remember the hours of waiting more than anything.

She had been admitted to the hospital herself, smoke inhalation and a deep gash on her arm. But there wasn't anyway she was staying in her hospital bed when a nurse had woken her up in the middle of the night to tell her that her mother had coded and was being moved to the CICU. They wouldn't let her leave her bed. But the minute she was alone, she had taken off all the electrodes, pulled the IV needle out of her little hand, slipping out of the hospital gown and into her own clothes and left the room covertly. She followed the signs to the CICU, weaving down corridors and going up elevators – hiding from doctors and nurses as she went.

When she finally got to the CICU, she asked the lady at the desk if she knew where her mother was. She had told her she couldn't see her at that moment.

So Clary had climbed onto a seat in one of the large chairs in the empty waiting room, her legs dangling over the edge.

She waited an eternity. It was only when she could see the sun beginning to rise did she curl up into the chair and start to cry silently, falling asleep in a tight ball.

Looking back now, she figured her own nurses must've found her. It wouldn't have been very hard, as soon as they realized she was gone, to guess where she was. They must've seen her asleep in the chair and just let her be.

It had been lunch time when she was finally shaken awake, a friendly looking doctor looming above her, she had tears in her eyes. She remembered that that had surprised Clary, all the doctors she had met had been stony faced and not emotionally attached. But this one must've taken to Clary – taking her own time out to comfort her through the first few hours of being told her mother had died, while her father was nowhere to be seen.

"Morgernstern?" The dentist from earlier called, poking his head through the door. _About time_, Clary thought. Jace had been in there for three quarters of an hour. She had never had her own wisdom teeth out so she didn't know how long it took. Was that normal? She had worried about him being in there on his own, but considering how zoned out the drugs looked like they were making him, she felt a little better.

She quickly got out of her seat and walked to the door, opening it slowly.

"Clarrryyy!"

* * *

><p>Isabelle opened the door to her house, holding it for Simon. He hadn't said anything, but she knew his head was hurting. But, despite everything, she was still nervous.<p>

What would Simon think of her house? She knew it was big, but would he think of her as some snobby rich girl? What would he think of her family? He had met her mom, Jace, Max. But what if her parents had a fight? Would he want to leave?

She had never been so nervous bringing someone into her house. Was it because he would be staying here for a while? Well she hoped he was a while at least.

She watched him carefully as he stepped through the door, taking her house in.

"Whoa." He gasped, spinning round.

The house was all on one floor and separated into three sections; in the right section there was a big room that led off to Izzy's, Jace's, Alec's, Max's rooms and one spare one. Then in the centre of the house was the kitchen – a lot more modern looking than the rest of the house. Then there was a snug at the end of the room, with two massive sofa's that went round two corners, facing a large TV and a fireplace. The wall was one large window that looked over the back garden. Then on the left – the third section - was Maryse and Roberts rooms, another spare room and a library.

The library was Isabelle's favorite part. It was the oldest part of the house, built in the late 1700's. The walls were covered head to tail in hundreds of books. The room itself was huge, made almost entirely in wood. There was an old looking desk at the end of the room and then a few sofa's scattered round – one of which had a permanent indentation of Jace's butt; he had worn it down so much. He was always in here, especially when his parents had first died. He would be in here for days, sitting in the same place on the same sofa. She wouldn't have been surprised if Jace had read every book in the whole damn library.

Simon seemed to like the room best too – his expression saying as much when Isabelle toured him round the house.

"And this is your room." She pointed to the guest room in-between her and Jace's rooms. He smiled his thanks to her and walked in, his bag already in there from when his mom had come to drop it off earlier.

"Are you feeling okay?" Isabelle asked, when he came out of the room. He looked like he was in pain.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He said. Isabelle cocked a hip disbelievingly and he hurried to rephrase, "I'm just a bit sore from moving around after being in bed so long I guess." He said.

Isabelle thought for a moment, he looked tired too. She didn't want to wear him out. Hell, she was tired herself, "We could watch a film?"

Simon nodded and followed her to the snug. He went to the sofa and made himself comfortable while Isabelle went round dimming the lights. Looking out the window, you could see the dim light of dusk.

Isabelle sat down next to him, putting a packet of Dorrito's between them.

"So, what do you want to watch?" Simon asked.

Isabelle smiled at him, "We have a game in our family. We turn on the TV and type in a random number, then we have to watch whatever channel we've typed in has to offer."

"It's a dangerous game." Simon raised a brow challengingly. He grinned and Isabelle used the remote to turn on the television.

"Pick a number." She said, reaching behind them to grab a blanket, throwing it over both of them.

She never thought Simon Lewis would be in her house. How long had she known him for? Years. Yet, they never had held a proper conversation with each other before – even if their school was really small. They were just on complete opposite ends of the schools social layout. Different friends, participating in different activities.

She had always thought he was cute, in a sort of nerdy way. Plus, she had been out with enough jerks in her life to know that Simon was _definitely_ not one of them.

Talking with him in the hospital had been the best conversations she'd had in a while. None of the people she spoke to actually cared for what she had to say about herself.

She had started to notice that the crowd she hung out with at school were all pretty shallow for a while now, maybe a couple months. They only cared about how much money their parents had, or what clothes they wore, how their hair looked. Sure Isabelle liked to look good, but she wouldn't describe herself as 'judging' – and that was the definition of her clique.

Since she'd noticed, she had often found herself seeing people like Simon and Clary together around school and feeling jealous. They would be friends for ever. What did she have? Not anyone she would keep in touch with when she left high school that's for sure.

She had mentioned to Kaelie the day before at school that Simon was staying at her house. She looked like she had never been so disgusted in her life, and then she had started laughing, saying how she felt for Izzy, telling her good luck. Isabelle had suddenly got all defensive, her anger skyrocketing in two seconds flat.

She moved towards him on the couch slightly, kicking off her shoes and sweeping her legs up to tuck her knees to her body.

"Hmm…" Simon thought, "Forty seven."

"Forty seven it is." She grinned, dialing in the number on the remote.

They both held a breath as the screen went blank briefly, changing channels.

Scooby Doo. They both laughed.

"I loved this one!" Simon exclaimed enthusiastically. Isabelle laughed harder, loving his enthusiasm.

It was Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. She remembered how this one used to terrify her when she was younger. She felt a strong wave of nostalgia surge through her. And she couldn't think of a movie she wanted to watch more.

She grinned to herself and, without thinking, shuffled so she was leaning against Simon. She winced.

She felt Simon take in a breath in surprise. Then he hesitantly lowered his arm that was resting on the back of the sofa delicately on to her shoulders, not actually putting weight on them but hovering awkwardly over. She smiled at how hesitant he was, he was so awkward – it was adorable. And so much different to any other guys she had been with before.

She reached to pull his arm down onto her shoulders properly, reassuring him it was okay.

She could feel his heart race where her body was touching him and he was tense. She smiled to herself once more when his muscles started to relax, then she snuggled in to watch the movie.

* * *

><p>He opened his eyes a few minutes later, the dentists were still faffing round by the computer. Stupid, stupid, stupid, dentists. Evil men with masks.<p>

One of the men took off his blue mask and Jace was taken by surprise, the shock exaggerated on his face; so they did have mouths. He started to laugh, who would have thought?

The man left and shouted something. Then he was back and Jace's favorite red head walked in.

"Clarrryyy!" He slurred, then frowned. There was something in his mouth. He didn't like it and tried to spit it out, but his tongue wasn't co-operating. He reached up to touch it and found he couldn't feel it at all.

"O' mh God, Clry." He said, holding his tongue out, "I dn't hve a tung. T'ey stole it."

"Did tey?" Clary said. She was smiling at him, he liked it when she smiled, "No, Jace, it's still there. How're you feeling?"

Jace squinted, then flung his head dramatically back onto the dentist bed. "I feel like...I feel like," Jace repeated as he tried to collect his thoughts. He felt detached. He felt _good_. "This is the good stuff Clary. Like _really _good. I'm floating."

He said, shutting his eyes for a moment and smiling goofily to himself. He spread his arms out. He felt like he was flying, like an eagle.

He turned his head when he head Clary snort. It was so cute. She had a hand over her mouth and her face was red, she was trying to stop herself from laughing. But why? He loved her laugh.

"Okay. I'm ready." Jace announced.

Clary was trying to suppress a smile when she looked to him, "Ready for what, Jace?"

Jace rolled his eyes, "To get my wisdom teeth out." He said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Jace, you've already got them out." Clary grinned.

Jace thought for a moment, his face scrunched up, "No I haven't." His voice still sounded funny, he had to speak round the thing in his mouth.

"Yeah you did."

Jace threw his head back on the chair. He had been here the whole time. He'd been awake the whole time. "Nuh-uh."

Clary giggled. Jace smiled, he always liked it when he made Clary laugh. It made him happy. He wanted a happy meal.

"I want to… I want to go to McDonalds." Jace said groggily.

"Why'd you want to go to McDonalds?" Clary asked, she was still laughing.

Jace looked at her funny, "Wanna say hi to Ronald." He said, in a way you'd say 'Duh.' "Come on Clary," Jace tried to tempt, "I'll buy you a McFlurr… a MaccyFluff… a McFlurf…" What were they called again?

"A McFlurry?"

That's the one. "Yeah, maybe we can get them to teach us how to make them."

"How about we go tomorrow? I'm not really hungry right now."

Not hungry? Pfft. McFlurfs were a drink.

Jace lay back down on his bed, rolling his head round. The chair was slopey. It was like rolling your face down a hill. But it was making his head spin. God he was dizzy.

He sat up again and looked at Clary, frowning. He frowned for a while, thinking hard. "Clary. When'd you get here?"

"I came in like five minutes ago, remember?"

He thought for a moment. Yes, he did remember. "When'd you leave?"

"Before the operation." She supplied.

He frowned again, "You left me?" He said, slapping a dis-coordinated hand to his heart and turning his head to look away, "I can't believe you left me. We're over."

Clary laughed and snorted again, "Over?"

"Yup. I break up with you."

"You're breaking up with me?" Clary pouted, but her eyes were smiling.

He didn't mean it. He didn't like her pouting. Was she upset? Did he make her upset? He scoffed, "God, Clary. I'm joking. Can't you tell a joke when you see one? I don't want to break up with you."

Phew, he seemed to have gotten away with that cause she started laughing again. He was always good at covering his mistakes.

Suddenly, something she had said earlier sunk in.

"What do you mean before the operation?" He asked, leaning over the chair towards her as much as he could without falling out, "They took them out already?" Clary nodded, her smile was really big, like she was about to laugh again. "How long did it take?"

"About forty-five minutes."

Jace's jaw flung open, his eyes wide. He flopped back into the chair. Forty-five minutes? Impossible. He had been there the whole time. And he knew that because he hadn't moved. He'd only been here like… three minutes. "I was asleep for forty-five minutes?!" Clary nodded. Jace just looked in disbelief. "And you were here the whole time?"

Clary bit her lip, still smiling, "No, I went and got a… I went and got a McFlurf."

Jace opened his mouth in surprise, putting his hand to his heart again, "Oh! For me?"

Clary was _the_ kindest person.

"Yeah, you already drank it."

Jace nodded his head, "Yeah, oh, it was really good."

"Thats good, cause I didn't really get you one."

Then he frowned again, "Wait. My teeth are gone?"

"Yup. All four of them."

That's wrong, he had waaaay more than four teeth. "No, Clary. I just – they can't – I _just_ fell asleep. They can't have taken them out."

"Yes we did, do you want to see?" The nurse, Kate, said. Jace looked at her weirdly, when did she get here? "I'll go get them."

Jace leaned out of his chair, looking worried. He gestured for Clary to come closer. She moved a bit but he needed her more closer. He gestured for her to keep moving until she was crouched down in front of him.

He lowered his voice to a whisper, "Clary, I don't think they took them out."

"You don't think they took them out?"

"No." Jace shook his head, worriedly.

"They lied?"

"Yeah." Jace nodded, his face serious. "You can't – you can't let them charge us." Clary laughed and he continued, "They didn't do anything."

"Shall – shall I go talk to them?" Clary whispered.

Jace nodded, "Yeah, and tell them they… tell them they might've forgotten to take Jace's wisdom teeth out." He said, pointing to his teeth with both hands.

Clary laughed, "I think we should leave. That sound good?"

He nodded. Then grimaced. Ugh. He hated dentists. Lying, tooth stealing, backstabbing mother-

"Come on then. You get a ride all the way to the car." Clary said, pushing a wheelchair to the side of the bed.

Jace lifted his chin and puffed out his chest, "Like a king."

Clary bit her lip to keep from laughing, "Mmhm. Just like a king."

"And you're my queen right?" He said, looking to Clary as the dentist and the nurse helped him into his chariot.

"Yup." Clary agreed, walking along side him as he was pushed through the building and out to the car park.

Jace smiled, she would be his queen. That's good.

* * *

><p>This was the best thing ever. Clary didn't think she had laughed so hard since the time she had taken all the books out of Simon's rucksack and filled it with woman's lingerie, leaving the zip open and accidently tripping him up so they all fell out in their English class.<p>

When Jace had finally got into the passenger side of the car, Clary looked at the car's dials.

"This car is so confusing. Why'd you get such a stupid car?" Clary huffed, trying to work out where everything was.

Jace took a sharp inhale of breath, leaning forward to hug the dashboard he stroked it. "She didn't mean it baby, she just doesn't understand you."

"Okay, I think I can work out enough to not get us run over." She said, finally getting the car going and driving out the hospital.

Jace was pressed up against the window. "Can we go back and see them?

"Who? The dentists?" Clary asked, indicating left and turning the car sharply.

Jace nodded, "I'm gunna miss them."

"But you hate the dentist."

Jace looked at her, "No." He looked back to the window and muttered, "I hate ducks though… so much. God I hate ducks."

It took a moment to realize Jace was crying. Clary kept glancing between him and the road. This was priceless.

"Are you… are you crying Jace?"

"No. My eyes are leaking… I need… need a plumber." He said wiping at his eyes and sniffing, "I really am going to miss them though. I mean, I only met like one person but I bet they're all really nice."

Now he was properly crying. Clary tried her absolute hardest not to try and laugh. What came out as a result was an odd strangled noise. Jace turned his head to her, "You're going to miss them too?"

Clary clamped her eyes shut, trying again not to laugh. She managed to nod her head.

"Aw, Clary, you don't have to cry. I don't like it when you're upset." He said, rubbing her arm in what she thought was meant to be a comforting gesture, "When the car stops, I'll give you a big mama bear hug."

That was it. Clary burst. Tears were rolling down her eyes and her stomach hurt from how much she was laughing.

Jace obviously mistook this as a clear emotional breakdown and that Clary was sobbing her eyes out. His sloppy stroking of her arm intensified into huge movements that only made Clary laugh harder. God it hurt. She couldn't breathe. She had to pull over.

As soon as the car stopped Jace had a firm grip on her shoulders, "Clary. Look at me."

Clary turned to face him, her head still hung low while her body wracked it silent laughs. "Look at me." He said, holding her chin to lift her head up.

She managed to pry her eyes open and held her breath.

"Clary, you aren't alone in this. Whatever it is – we'll… we'll work it out together. I promise. You're my queen remember?"

Then he pulled her into a hug and Clary's body continued to convulse in silent laughter. He squeezed harder and she had to wipe her eye's while her chin rested on her shoulder. Water was completely blurring her vision and she could feel Jace's shirt growing wet.

A few minutes later she was beginning to calm down, Jace's hand rubbing her back, when suddenly he lurched forward to look out Clary's window. He was still holding her when he moved, so she ended up pinned underneath him.

"Oh my gosh. Look at the – look at the… Look at the things floating on the water."

"They're… boat's… Jace." Clary tried to get out from being crushed beneath him.

"But how… How do they... what..? Wait. They're boats?" He asked. "So what… you're telling me all that blue stuff around it is -"

"Water."

"That's the water?" He asked, sounding absolutely amazed. "What does it do?"

"You can… drink it?" Clary said, unsure how to reply.

"I want some."

"How about I drive you home and I'll get you a glass of water?" Clary tried to reason.

Jace sat up abruptly, much to Clary's relief. "Really?" Jace asked, "You'd do that for me?"

Clary nodded, "How about we go home huh?"

Jace nodded in agreement and Clary got the car started again, driving down a few streets and then turning right at the McDonalds.

Jace pointed at it through the glass, his head following it as it went. "McFlurf." He muttered sadly and sank back into his chair, a couple of tears falling down his cheeks.

Clary giggled and turned into the driveway of his house.

"Whoa. This is your house?" She asked.

Jace looked through the windscreen. "Yup." He said, popping the 'p'.

Clary turned off the ignition and pulled out the keys, opening the door. She quickly hurried round to Jace's side when he opened the door and fell out. She found him lying on his back and laughing up at the sky.

"Come on Jace, let's get you inside."

She huffed as she wrapped her arms around Jace and tried to lift him to his feet. She looped one of his arms round her shoulders and held tightly to his waist.

He towered over her and it was the most awkward hobble Clary had to do, supporting all of his weight, to get to the front door.

Isabelle opened it the moment the got to the doorstep and collapsed to the floor, howling with laughter.

Jace bent down to whisper loudly into Clary's ear, "_Someone's_ lost it."

* * *

><p><strong>Please don't hate me. I'm sorry if you hated it. Tell me what you thought. If you do actually hate it, I'll take it down and completely rewrite the plot of this chapter. I'm just testing the waters.<strong>

**Oh, and I've never had my teeth out before, so sorry if the process is wrong. I did research but it was very controversial. **

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><p><strong><span><em>SHOUTOUTS: <em>**

**roobear609 (**Thanks so much for your suggestion. I was planning on making him bad the whole way through but I'll ask everyone and see what they think. Thank you so much for bringing it up - It never would have crossed my mind if you hadn't x**), All the Guests,**** ClaceandPeeniss4eva (**aww, thanks so much - I'm really glad your liking it, thanks for the review :)**), firequeen2569 (**Haha, your review made me laugh. Did your mouth hurt a lot after they were pulled out? Thank's for the suggestions, they really helped. Xx**), TMIRockz (**I'm from England. Where are you from? And cheers :)**), Riley207 (**aw, cheers. I try to make my punctuation at least readable but I feel my spelling is sometimes not my strong point. So thank you x**), Olympicnerd84 ****(**Ahah, can't say fairer than that. And thank you so much!**), S.L**** (**I'm glad you think so. And about Valentine, a lot of people want him to get nicer, what do you think? And thank you!**), mortallovergirl (**Ahah, thanks so much for the suggestion. I really wanted to add it but I couldn't fit it in anywhere and the chapter was getting really long, so I just mentioned his hatred for ducks instead. I'm really sorry. But the idea had me laughing for like ten minutes :) x**), Arelia Miles (**Sorry I updated this without you before, I just thought I wouldn't be able to later because I'm going to NY party tomorrow. Ooh, that reminds me I have to review for yours! I am literally useless :/ Thanks for spotting the 1st/3rd person thing. I changed it. Ahah, your friends sound hilarious x**), goat99 (**Loving the pen name ;) Yeah, unfortunately I am. Yay, now we can suffer together! I think they'll go to Iceland in like 2 chaps time? So I guess you'll have to find out ;) x**), GingerNinjaaa (**! I completely forgot about the Malec! Ahh! I'll have to add that in later. How could I forget? They're my favourite. Thanks for reminding me :D**), ****tipster0713 (**Ahah, thanks for the suggestion. And thank you for reviewing. I kind of implied how he felt about her, I didn't want him to say anything yet though. Saving that for the trip ;) x**), Im not u** **(**Thank you so much! Hmm... I haven't actually been on wattpad yet, so I wouldn't know what that means. But I'm only really allowed to say Jamie Campbell Bower cause I've known him since I was seven. Being on TMI fanfic is weird when you know one of the actors, but hey ho. Xx**), ashnicatthelibrary (**Thank you so much! That was super useful - so thank you. I tried to incorporate al three. What'd you think? I'm really nervous I didn't do it well. Turns out it's much harder to write than you'd imagine :/ x**), KressieBe (**Oh really? Thank you so much! x**), from Ravenclaw (**Really? Aw, thanks. Look at the question bit below, I could use your opinion on the subject - so thanks for bringing it up. Yay! I'm glad you're liking the Sizzy. Some people just want Clace... But I just love how Simons so nerdy and awkward and Isabelle is so graceful and popular kinda thing. X**), Amelia (**Ahah, cheers. N'aww thank you so much :D I loved your review! X**), Lindsayhonaker (**Noooooo! I read your review after I had written the chapter! Dammit. That sounds hilarious. I wish I could've done that. And no problem - It's the least I could do :) xx **), MysticWished (**Thank you! I'm glad you like the Isabelle part, your the only person to comment on it. I like getting into her character cause she's one of those one's where there's more to her than meets the eye kinda thing? Look down to the question thing below. Thank you so much for reviewing! X**), ipearlmusicfash (**Aw, really? No way. I'm so flattered - thank you. I'm not planning on stopping updating in the near future - so no worries there Xx**) , Kitkatsaymeow (**Glad you think so :) Thanks for reviewing x**) , Liz399 (**aww, thanks. And sorry about chapter ten I accidentally uploaded it before I had finished it... oopps :/ Xx**) ****ArtDrunky (**Thank you for being so honest - I need some honesty and some constructive criticism. Thanks for letting me know, I get a bit carried away with the Sizzy fluff, I love Sizzy. I'll try to tone down a bit. Actually, contrary to popular belief, it's still fucking cold out there. It's not as Icey as Greenland, but it's still got some amazing snow and ice features, and glaciers and things. My sister went there on her geography trip (wonder where I got the idea for the story from...) and it was really cold cause they went up in the higher parts where it's colder. I probably won't change the summary, I would, but I'm awful at them and I feel if I touch it I'll make it horrible. And they'll be going to Iceland in about two chaps time anyway. But thank you so much for this - it all really helped! :) Xx**)**

**Wow. *Shakes wrist, takes deep breath***

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><p><span><strong>Questions you might want to know the answer to <strong>

_1. Can valentine become nicer as the story progresses (asked by a lot of people) ~_ **I wasn't planning on it, but then again I hadn't really thought of it. But I've been thinking of things he could to to get nicer now it's been bought to my attention. So what do you all think? Horrible or eventual nice Valentine - it would be really helpful to know what you think. **

_2. When they going to Iceland? (also asked by a lot of people) ~_**In two chapters I think, if things go to plan that is.**

**I'm just going to clear confusion briefly - in the last one I mentioned If you could think of ways to bring Jon back to life. I didn't mean by some magical means, I meant realistic ones that fit around the fire plot. **

**But I think, if I were to bring Jon back, I'd have to keep Valentine mean. So sorry - one or the other. Which one do you think?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, long time no see. Sorry for being shitty at updating – I'm on holiday, and I'm trying to finish all my holiday homework in the last week (… not the best idea, I know)**

**Skiing is great – thanks for those of you asking, I had a fall a few days back and got winded so bad I actually passed :S … The experience should help with my writing a few chapters time though… ;)**

**And this chapter is dedicated to S.L, my 300th review!? – Thanks for the constant support S.L :D **

**WARNING: Language and mentioned animal abuse (sorry)**

* * *

><p><strong>Ice Cold<strong>

**11**

Jace woke up groggily. The sun was too bright and _fuck _did his mouth hurt.

He clumsily reached for one of the pain killers he spotted on the bedside table and downed it with the water that had been left next to it.

He didn't remember leaving them there. He didn't remember even walking to his room and going to sleep.

He put a heavy hand over his forehead and groaned loudly. Boy did his mouth hurt. He rolled his head in discomfort, waiting for the painkillers to do their thing.

It was only when the pain started to go down a bit that the events of the day before slapped him in the face. His eyes flung open and he moaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Why did he let Clary come with him? That was _beyond_ embarrassing. And knowing her, she'd tease him about it for the rest of his life.

Particular conversations were starting to come back to him. He remembered hugging and comforting her, but what was she upset about? He rubbed his temples and tried to recall all he could from the day before. He needed to remember it all before he got out of bed and faced the wrath of their teasing.

She hadn't been crying, he suddenly realized, she'd been laughing… at him.

He remembered in remorse him calling himself a King, he remembered… something about a McFlurry?

He rolled his legs out of bed and left his room, not bothering with fixing his bed mussed hair, making his way slowly to the kitchen.

Clary was sitting with her legs tugged to her chest, holding her phone out. Isabelle sat right next to her and both of them were pajama clad and had bright red faces, laughing enough to make it look painful.

This couldn't be good.

He walked up behind them and crouched down to see the paused image of his face on the small screen of Clary's phone.

"You filmed it?!" He exclaimed, clutching his jaw in pain when he opened it too wide.

Clary just nodded, laughing too much to talk.

"Oh my God Jace. This… this is comedy gold." Isabelle pointed to the small screen.

"It got better in the car. But I couldn't film it." Clary said oh-so-helpfully.

"Seriously?" Isabelle asked, "Tell me!"

Before Clary opened her mouth, Jace was already sending her a threatening glare, she stopped herself. Clever girl.

"Aww, Is Jacey-poo embarrassed?" Isabelle asked, mischief written all over her face. She looked exaggeratedly between Clary and Jace, "Ooh.. should I leave? Do you guys want to talk alone? That was a pretty dramatic break up."

Jace felt a warm sensation in the pit of his stomach when he saw Clary blush deeply, but he ignored it and moved to cuff Isabelle on the back of the head, messing her hair up.

Jace made his way to the freezer, pulling out an ice pack. He pressed it to his jaw and went back to the sofa, plopping himself down on the sofa. God that felt good. His mouth was still hurting like a bitch though. He needed ice cream or something, but Isabelle and Simon ate the last of it the night before.

"Where's Lewis?" Jace asked bemusedly.

"Sleeping." Izzy replied, standing up, "I'm going to go check on him." She said, before leaving the room.

Clary raised an eyebrow, her eyes following her as she left the room. "I don't know about you," She said, turning her attention to Jace, "But I am definitely sensing something going on."

Jace lay back confidently, "Don't worry, it's natural." He said, gesturing to himself, "People say it's the face..."

Clary opened her mouth and smacked him on the arm, "Between Isabelle and Simon, moron."

He was happy he managed to make her blush again. It was kinda cute.

"We better get ready." He said, getting up from the sofa.

"…For what?" Clary asked.

"I'm buying you a McFlurry remember?" He said, smirking at the surprise on her face, "You didn't think I'd forget now, did you?"

Clary blushed again, but quickly recovered. She looked up thoughtfully and stroked her chin. "Hmm… No. I don't remember anything about you buying me a _McFlurry_…" Jace's brows creased slightly, trying to guess where she was going with this, "I do remember you saying you would buy me something pretty similar though. What was it called again…?" Clary asked playfully, looking deep in thought. "A McFlurf?"

Jace rolled his eyes, and so it begins, "Ha. Ha. I think you'll find I won't be paying for either if I keep getting bullied."

Clary's jaw dropped, though still smiling, "Me? Bully you?"

Jace winked at her, ice pack still held to his jaw, and left for his room.

* * *

><p>Izzy, Simon and Jace were all in the living room by the time Clary was dressed and ready. She hadn't bought any of her own stuff since it was a rather spontaneous sleepover, so she had to borrow some of Izzy's clothes.<p>

"Ready?" Jace asked when he saw her enter the room.

Clary blushed when she noticed him look her up and down. She nodded and headed for the front door. Jace opened it for her and, just before he shut it they heard Izzy call out to them, "Clary! I'm calling a movie night tonight. Me and you."

Clary smiled and shouted back to her, "Okay. I'll see you back here."

Jace shook his head amusedly and shut the door behind them.

God it was cold outside. It hadn't settled, but it had begun to snow. Mind you, Clary couldn't complain – she loved the snow.

She walked silently by Jace's side, her hands stuffed deep into her pockets. She was confused, however, when he walked right passed the car.

"No car?" She asked.

Jace looked down to her, a small grin on his face. "I thought we could walk. It's just round the corner anyway."

Clary smiled and nodded her head enthusiastically. "I guess you got a say in where the house was when you moved here then."

"And what makes you think I have McDonald's so often? Maybe I don't like it."

"Yeah… I just assumed. Cause you know, I guess you have to go there pretty often to become bezzies with Ronald."

"Hey," Jace said, pointing a warning finger at Clary, "Your free McFlurf is in jeopardy."

Clary laughed, "I _sincerely_ apologize."

"Is that all you have to say for yourself? That you 'apologize'?" He asked teasingly, grinning down to her.

"What? You want a poem?" She asked and Jace chuckled.

Clary pushed her fingers deeper into her coat pockets; it was getting colder. Though, it was beautiful. They walked under a canopy of trees, along a deserted road.

Clary could see the white snow flakes clinging to her red hair out the corner of her eye, the contrast striking.

Jace looked down at her curiously, "Your hands cold?" He asked.

Clary nodded, pulling them out her pockets out to reveal her small red hands. Jace reached into his own coat pocket, digging out a pair of grey gloves.

"Here," He said, passing them to her. "They're not amazing gloves but…"

She laughed; they had holes everywhere. She didn't mind though. She slipped them onto her small hands and smiled at how big they were for her. They dwarfed her hands.

Jace laughed, "You have small hands,"

Clary pouted, looking down at the gloves, "They aren't _that_ small. Your's are just huge."

Jace pondered this for a moment, then shook his head, "Nah, you just have small hands."

Clary elbowed him and he laughed. "What were you saying about me bullying you?" She asked, peering up at him through her fluffy hood. He had pieces of snow stuck to his hair to, making it look even more golden than usual.

He wore his trademark smirk. "I see I've found someone's touchy subject."

Clary rolled her eye's as they turned round the curb. Jace held open the large, yellow door for her, following once she was inside.

There wasn't many people there so they walked right to the front, there not being any queue.

"Okay, Red, what'd you want?" Jace asked, leaning his arms on the counter.

"Red?" Clary asked.

"Yeah," Jace smirked, "You look like little red riding hood with that coat." He said, pulling her hood over her head and down to cover her eyes. She huffed and pulled it back off, dropping it onto her neck. "Plus, your hair is red."

"Bully…" Clary muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Jace asked challengingly.

"So what do you recommend?" Clary asked, swiftly changing the subject, "I've never had one of these before."

Jace gaped at her, "Seriously?" She shook her head and Jace turned his attention to the cashier, "Two M&M McFlur… rys, please." He said, hearing Clary giggle beside him.

The teenaged boy behind the counter looked at the two like they were insane, "You nuts? It's crazy-cold outside."

Jace only nodded, "How much?" He asked, pulling his wallet out.

"Depends. Large or small?" The boy asked.

Jace looked down to Clary briefly, she shrugged, "Large." He replied, the cashier typing busily into the computer.

"Five dollars." He said.

Jace paid the man and the drinks came soon after. Clary thanked him and opened the lid to look inside. "Looks like ice-cream." She said.

"It's not _just_ ice cream. Try a bit."

"Looks like ice cream with M&M's in it."

"Exactly," Jace smirked, "And it makes it all that better."

Clary shook her head in amusement, smiling down at her cold dessert.

She frowned when she noticed Jace was headed for the door. "Where are you going?" She asked.

"… Out. I never liked the indoors," Jace said, opening the door, "Unless you want to stay here."

Clary shook her head, walking over to him and through the door, "Nah, I never liked the indoors much either." Jace grinned and walked out after her.

The snow had started to settle on the streets once now, laying a fresh sheet of pristine-white coloring over the polluted city.

The pair walked slowly, not any destination in mind, talking, teasing and laughing with each other until they found themselves at an old park. Jace led Clary over to a worn down, rusty swing set and they both took a place next to each other. Clary gripped the chain links with her over-sized gloves and they swung lightly in a rhythm that matched the other, eating their McFlurf's.

Clary noticed Jace regard the playground with a sort of tenderness. There was a blue slide that was more brown than blue now, a monkey-bar set, and a little tunnel fit for a small person to crawl through. It was all under the shade of the largest willow tree Clary had ever seen. Jace seemed to look at the playground with much more fondness than you'd think it'd originally deserve.

"You come here a lot?" She asked.

Jace grinned, looking down into his ice cream. "Came." He corrected, "I haven't been here in years." He said, scooping another mouthful of the cold dessert. "I came here a lot when my parents first died." He said, not meeting Clary's eye.

She could see the hesitation on his face. It was obviously a place that was very special to him, "We can go if you want. I don't want to-"

"No." Jace insisted, "I wanted to show it to you." He said, looking up to her for the first time, smiling.

Clary smiled and turned back to look at the playground. It didn't look like anyone had been here in years, apart from the odd piece of litter discarded on the ground. There was a small bank that led to a frozen-over lake, a picnic table looking over it. She imagined it must have been beautiful in it's prime.

Clary sighed in the silence, "There was this tree…" She began, twirling the tips of her hair around her finger, "I used to bring a book up there and read until it was too dark to see the words."

Jace smiled sadly, "Books. Like entering another life, running away from your own."

Clary nodded, taking another mouthful of her ice-cream.

_Clary stared down, paralyzed in shock, at her big brother. There was blood everywhere. His face, his hair, his stomach… He was covered in scrapes and bruises from head to toe. A ghost of the hero Clary had grown up with by her side. _

_Her mom lay unconscious next to Jon and Valentine was hunched over him, trying frantically to give first aid to his son. Desperately trying to bring life back into his heart. _

_But he was gone, Clary knew it. _

_"Oh my God…" She breathed._

_Valentine spun toward her wildly, rising to his feet in a heart beat. Clary jumped at the sudden movement and stared up into her fathers furious eyes. _

_"This is all your fault." He sneered, "You see that?" He yelled, pointing to her brothers lifeless form, "_That_, is because of _you_." He hissed._

_Tears rolled down Clary's cheeks – in fright, in guilt, she didn't know._

_"Dad…" She gasped, pleading with him._

_"Shut the hell up!" He cried, bending so his face was right up in hers, "Get the hell away from my son." He said, pushing her shoulders. She stumbled back, landing heavily on her butt. Pain shot up through her own bruises and broken bones, but she ignored them valiantly._

_"I don't want you coming to the hospital with us." He announced, hearing the wails of sirens in the distance._

_Clary's eyes went wide – he'd never tried to separate her and Jon before. She had to go with him, she had to know if her brother was all right. And her mom._

_"But Dad, I-"_

_"GET OUT!" He yelled, pointing off in a random direction, then turned his attention back to his first-born. He looked over his shoulder when Clary didn't move and shot her a murderous look, full or all kinds of hatred Clary didn't know people could possess._

_Clary breathed in shakily, then got up on weak legs and ran for all she was worth. Her body felt like it was on fire, all the sore muscles, burns, bruises, all working overtime. Her arm was trickling blood, staining her clothes. She knew she needed to go to the hospital too but she couldn't bring herself to tell her father. Not then._

_It was pitch black – maybe one in the morning. She ran blindly, her mind fogged in shock, completely overwhelmed. She found herself standing at the bottom of an old tree. The branches were weak and rickety – only sturdy enough for a small seven-year-old girl, but the greenery was dense. She climbed up, to the highest branch she could go without the branches snapping, hidden by the thick layers of leaves, and curled up into a ball._

_She didn't cry. She sat on the branch for hours, shaking and scared to death for her family. And scared to death _of_ her family. _

"How about we go get your stuff?"

Clary almost jumped at the sound of Jace's voice, drawing her out of her thoughts. She looked to him in question, "…Sorry, what?"

"You know, for your 'girlie night' with Iz?"

"Oh, right." Clary nodded, "Yeah okay."

Jace smiled at her, getting up from the swing and holding a hand out to her. She took it and he helped her up.

"So did you enjoy your McFlurf?" He asked, his eyebrow raised and lip curled in amusement.

"I did enjoy my McFlurf." Clary replied, grinning and showing off her empty tub. Jace smirked triumphantly.

The two walked back to his house slowly, taking their time – they didn't have anywhere they needed to be.

When they finally got to his house, Jace ran inside to grab his car keys and quickly came back out, unlocking the doors. Clary sat down in the passenger side and smiled to herself. She liked Jace's car; it was the object that most reminded her of him. One of the backdoors had his name carved into the bottom of it, drawn in a childish scribble. There were marks on the roof where you could see the marks of stickers once put there, then peeled away. There was an old, coffee stained map-book in the pocket of one of the front seats – no satnav's, and, ultimately, it smelt like him.

She was willing to bet his parents had left it to him when they died; no way would a seventeen year old have this as their first car. His parents had obviously had it since he was a child, judging by the marks he had left in the back. Some people may have said it was messy or scarred, but she liked it more because of it. It had… substance.

Jace swooped in the drivers side and sat down, turning to her. "Sorry Clary, you can't sit there." He said solemnly.

Clary frowned; she had sat in his car plenty of times before, "What? Why?"

"There's a height limit." He said, pointing to the picture on her sunshield of a small child sitting in the passenger seat with a large red cross over it.

Her face fell when she realized he was joking, he was grinning devilishly. "Rude." She muttered, hiding her own smile away from him.

She heard him chuckle as he pulled the car into reverse and drove out the driveway and then down the street. "So where we headed?"

"Oh… uh," She hadn't thought yet that Jace was about to see where she lived. _What_ she lived in.

She glanced up at his large, manicured house and compared it to her own. She couldn't think of a stronger polar-opposite.

Hesitantly, she started directing him to her house, it was about a ten-minute drive. When they finally arrived, she was almost tempted to not tell him to stop, that she didn't really live on that street. But she did.

"This one?" Jace asked, pointing at the house Clary had told him to pull into.

She nodded, chewing on her lip nervously. He drove alongside it wordlessly, pulling the gear into park.

"Do you want me to come in?" He asked.

On the one hand, she didn't really want him to see the shithole she lived in. But on the other, they should be able to avoid Valentine easily – It was about time for his 'mid-day hit' and he should be in the bar a few doors down by now. Plus, he had been nice enough to have her at his house, it was only fair she should show him her's.

"Yeah… okay. I don't mind."

Jace flashed her a grin and got out the car. Clary sighed before getting out her own side. They walked to the front door together, Clary playing with her fingers nervously before reaching for the door handle. She hesitated, turning to him, "Don't expect… much." She told him.

He just shook his head dismissively and Clary opened the door.

Stepping into the threshold if their little house, it smelt like it always did; whiskey, cigars and cat pee. She usually didn't think much of it, but now she was beyond embarrassed, having just spent the night at his amazing house to show him her own.

She suddenly wanted to clean up the house and use about four bottles of _Frebreeze_ in attempt to get the smell out. But it was too late now.

She lead him up the narrow stairs and to the small door on the right; her bedroom.

She liked to think her bedroom apart from the rest of her house. She had painted the walls a bright purple, trying to make it appear brighter than the rest of the house. The floors were covered in different coloured rugs – mainly paint splattered.

It was small and had a single bed in the corner, most of the room taken up by her desk and various art supplies and easels scattered around. Her walls were covered head to toe in paintings, sketches, etchings, doodles. These seemed to take Jace's interest immediately, he went slowly around her room, studying each piece of art with admiration. Clary could feel her cheeks heat up.

"Clary… these are… I didn't know you could draw." He breathed, taking in her room.

"Yeah…" Clary said slowly.

"They're amazing, don't be embarrassed."

Clary's face flushed further and she played with her fingers again, "Thanks."

She quickly found all the stuff she'd need for the night and stuffed it into a small rucksack. They were about to get back into the car when Clary stopped, "I forgot my toothbrush, I'll be back in a sec." She said, before flinging her rucksack into the passenger seat and jogging back to the house. She quickly ran up the stairs, her footsteps thundering, and grabbed her toothbrush. She was just about to go back outside when she heard a gravelly voice call out, "He seems nice."

Clary froze.

First of all, what was he doing at home at midday? And second… had he really just spoken to her voluntarily?

She spun round to find Valentine in his seat in the living room, turned slightly to face her.

"Er… yeah. He is."

"Does he have a name?"

"Yeah…" Clary trailed off, looking at him confusedly, "Jace." She gave, inching round the kitchen counter. "...Did you want a drink or something?" She asked.

"No, I'm good thanks. I er… I gave up."

Clary's brows furrowed, "Gave up what?"

"I'm –" He coughed and looked away from her, "I'm tee-total."

Clary's eye's flung open. She was about to ask him why, when, but she thought better of it, maybe he'd change his mind if she questioned him on it – and she _definitely _didn't want that.

"Okay, that's good." She tried a smile and he rolled his eyes and turned away from her once more. "Well, I'm off." She said, turning for the door again.

"Where you going?"

What had gotten into him? He never cared what she was doing, "Friends house." She almost questioned.

She reached for the door and stepped out. Just before it clicked shut she heard him call out to her "Have fun."

Clary spent most of the car ride in silence, watching out her window.

* * *

><p><em>Have fun<em>.

Her father's words rang in her head like an echo reverberating off the walls of her skull. She couldn't remember the last time he had something like that. _Ever._ Well, after the fire at least.

And _tee-total?!_ She would not in a million years think he'd give up alcohol. And so suddenly…

Something had changed in him. She could only hope it was for the better.

"Clary…" Jace trailed off, "What's wrong?"

Clary sat up straight, pushing herself away from the window, "Nothing."

Jace looked at her with a raised brow, he didn't buy it. "Come on, you were fine a few minutes ago." He pushed, then looked at her steadily in the eyes, "You can tell me, Clary."

Clary just shook her head, "I just… got stuff on my mind is all."

Jace still looked skeptical but he didn't push and focused back on the road.

Clary looked down at her hands, her mind reverting back to her father. Things had really changed the past few weeks. She had a new friend – one she would never have thought in a million years she would ever have a proper conversation with. Her best friend had been in a car crash. And now her father was actually willingly participating in a conversation with her, had actually asked her about a friend she'd bought home. He never cared about what she did. Ever. And now he was telling her to '_have fun'. _She chuckled softly, the whole thing was unbelievable.

"Your hand's tell jokes or something?" Jace quipped.

Clary laughed and shook her head amusedly, her gaze travelling back out the window.

They were driving through a fairly clean suburb, the houses seeming to decrease in size the further down the road they went. There were two mothers pushing their babies down the sidewalk, the usual jogger crossing the road, a couple of kids riding their bikes. It was a perfectly typical scene. But something caught Clary's eye that she wished she'd never witnessed.

"You know, I never would have thought that-"

"Jace stop the car." Clary cut him off. Jace frowned at her, she looked at him wildly, "Seriously, stop the car."

He pulled over onto the side of the road. The moment the vehicle stopped, Clary was hurrying out the door, Jace following close behind.

"Clary," Jace tried as he powered towards her. She was running up the sidewalk, "Clary! What are you-"

His gaze travelled to where Clary had her worried eyes fixed.

A dirty man – maybe in his sixties – was standing on the porch of his house. His bright red, angry face stood out starkly against his food-stained white t-shirt that barely covered his large beer-belly.

At his feet was a small puppy – maybe a few weeks old. It cowered under him, completely at the man's mercy. He was screaming things at the dog even Clary's dad would never say. She didn't think she had ever seen so much disgust in a man's eye.

He lifted his leg once more, after yelling a round of profanities at the pup, and was about to strike once more when Clary sprinted forward.

"Hey!" She yelled.

Jace was quickly at her side, his expression one of pure anger.

The man put his foot back down and looked at the two teenagers that stood outside his house, both fuming. "What the fuck do you want?"

"You can't… You… What the… you can't," Clary stuttered to find words, anger fragmenting her speech. She might be able to handle a punch up between humans, there could be some sort of justification, but harming a helpless animal somehow crossed a line.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jace yelled – his wording unfazed by his fury.

"The little rat fucking shat on my floor." The man fumed, looking back down at the dog, "Have to fucking house train him, don't I?"

"What? By beating it?" Clary said, her jaw hanging open in disbelief.

"Well how the fuck else am I meant to?"

"Are you serious? Clary stared at the idiot incredulously, "By shutting him outside for twenty minutes. Like normal people do. You don't _kick _them!"

"I didn't even want the runt in the first place." The man agued, "Fucking sister left it with me." He muttered.

"We're not just going to let you kick it." Jace announced.

The man shook his head in disbelief, "What the hell do you mean '_let me'_, I can do whatever the fuck I want. And two… teenagers aren't going to stop me." The man fumed.

"Well we can if it's against the law." Clary reasoned.

"Training your dog isn't _against the law_, sweetheart." The man sneered.

Clary frowned at the nickname, Jace didn't seem to like it either. "No, training isn't, but abusing is." He snapped.

The man glared at them, clearly at a loss for words. "You fuckin have 'im then. I'm not keeping it if he keeps shitting on my floor."

Before Clary or Jace could utter a word, the greasy man bent down and picked up the puppy, throwing it in the air toward them. Clary's heart stopped as it seemed to fly through the air in slow motion.

The throw was off and Clary had to leap forward to catch it. She caught it and started to feel herself topple over, but strong arms caught her in an instant, bringing her back to her feet.

She was furious. How could someone _throw_ a puppy?! Her anger instinctively propelled her toward the man, but Jace's arms were still wrapped round her, restraining her from getting to him.

She looked up at Jace, pleading him to let her go. When she saw his stubborn face, she knew it wasn't going to happen. She turned back to the man and was about to start yelling things at him when Jace quickly muttered in her ear, "Let's just go. You won't do anything but anger him."

Clary bit her lip and tried to suppress her fury. She sighed, but eventually nodded, turning back towards the car, Jace by her side.

When they were in the car, Clary lowered herself carefully into the passenger seat, cradling the puppy. She took a proper look at it for the first time.

It was grey with black spots and cute floppy ears. She noted it was a she – not a he. It was about the length of her fore-arm, she guessed it was only a couple weeks old. Her eyes were brown and opened wide, she was one of the most adorable things Clary had seen. To think what that man had done to it made her blood boil.

The puppy was shaking vigorously and whining softly, looking fearfully up at Clary, it nearly tore her heart.

She held it closer to her body to try and warm her up, stroking the soft fur comfortingly.

Jace shut her door and quickly ran round to his side, sliding in his seat and looking over at the puppy.

"She's terrified." Clary muttered, looking down at the shaking pup. Jace reached out a hand to stroke it. "What are we going to do with her?" Clary asked softly.

"Well…" Jace trailed off, "What _can _we do with her?" He asked, "I'm not sending it to a kennel, look at her." He pointed.

Clary nodded, agreeing with him instantly. Then her face fell, "I can't keep her. My dad would blow up." She muttered sadly, her eyes downcast.

Jace paused, "Well… I'll have to ask Mayrse. But…" He trailed off.

Clary looked up to him with excitement, "You would take her?" She enthused, her eyes shining.

Jace shrugged, "Yeah why not? I've always wanted a dog."

He grinned at the large smile that was plastered on Clary's face from his words. She reached over to hug him in excitement. He returned it, both making sure not to crush the puppy held between them.

She pulled away and squealed in happiness, then looked down to the puppy that was starting to relax in her arms, "We got a new home for you." She said, jiggling her arms a bit.

Jace chuckled at Clary then pulled the car into gear, driving off in the direction of his house.

"But it's not mine." He said as he turned the corner.

Clary looked up at him, eyes wide and sad. He smirked at her, "It's ours." He finished, "I may have the house for it but you're the one that saved it."

Clary grinned at him and nodded, "Okay." She said quietly, the puppy just falling asleep in her arms.

* * *

><p>They pulled up in the Lightwood's driveway fifteen minutes later. The pup was fast asleep on Clary's lap. When the car came to a stop, she picked it up carefully so not to wake it, Jace walking round to her side to open the door because she couldn't do it herself.<p>

He helped her out, both being careful not to jostle the small dog, and moved to the front door.

Jace led her through his house and into the kitchen where Isabelle and Simon seemed to be cooking lunch. Well, Clary supposed they were meant to be cooking lunch, it looked more like they were having a flour war, both of them covered head-to-toe in the white powder and laughing wildly.

"Uh… Iz" Jace coughed, alerting the two to their presence. They both froze like they'd just been caught stealing from the cookie jar. Isabelle quickly recovered, "It's about time you two showed up. We were-" She paused when her eyes fell to the sleeping puppy Clary was holding carefully, "…Okay."

Simon frowned, stepping round the kitchen island "Is that a dog, Clary?"

Clary nodded. "We found some douche with her." She explained quietly, "He… gave her to us."

"… So some guy just _gave_ you a dog?" Simon queried.

Clary bit her lip, "Not exactly." She admitted, leaving Jace to launch into the story of how they got the dog.

"Oh my God," Isabelle gasped, a hand covering her mouth, "That's awful. Maryse has to let us keep her." She said, moving towards Clary to start stroking the pup.

"What type of dog is it?" Simon asked, sitting on the island stool, his broken arm resting on the counter.

Clary frowned and looked down at it, "I don't know."

Isabelle frowned, "Well… it's got pretty unique markings. Judging how big it is from how young it looks, and by the tail and the ears, I'd say it was a Great Dane."

Simon raised his brows, "A Great Dane?" He repeated, Izzy nodded, "Like the huge, Scooby-Doo, giant, biggest-dog-in-the-world kind of Great Dane?" He asked, looking down at the tiny puppy.

Izzy nodded once more and smiled down at the small animal asleep in Clary's arms, "I've always liked big dogs."

* * *

><p>After Simon and Isabelle had cleaned themselves up, the four sat on the large L-shaped sofa in the living roomsnug bit, the sleeping puppy in the corner on a pillow, Isabelle and Clary stroking it.

"So," Jace said, "names."

Clary almost forgot they needed to name it.

"Er… Rover." Isabelle suggested.

"Boys name." Jace dismissed.

"Coco." Clary gave.

"Too cliché."

"…Buster."

"Boy again."

"Annie."

"My Grandmother's called Annie." Simon shook his head in disgust.

"Ginger."

"She's grey."

"Rosie."

"Too… feminine."

"You're the one who insists on a girl name."

"Scooby Doo."

"No, Simon."

"…Scrappy Doo."

"Just no, Simon."

"…Scooby Dumb?"

"Why would we name her after you?"

Simon glared at Jace.

"Lucy."

"Cliché."

"Daisy."

"Another flower."

"Okay," Isabelle put her hands up in surrender, "Her name can be confirmed later. For now we can just temporarily call her… Dog."

Clary raised an eyebrow, "Dog?"

"Can you think of a better one?" She asked.

"Cat?" Simon smirked.

Everyone turned to him, "Simon… just give up." Isabelle pleaded. Simon chuckled.

* * *

><p>"Pfft," Isabelle scoffed, "Like a door could float."<p>

They were watching the Titanic which - apparently - happened to be Isabelle's worst film, but they had to watch it since they had dialled it in.

They were at the part where the boat had sunk and Rose was on a door, holding onto Jack's hand.

"Selfish cow, he's freezing in the water and she's just lying on that freaking door like it's a bed in a five star hotel. This is meant to be a romance, right?"

Clary couldn't help but giggle at Isabelle's antics.

"She can't just say 'I'll never let go' and then let go of him two seconds later. If she was '_never_' going to let him go, she should have sunk to the bottom with him."

Clary put a hand to her forehead and chuckled, making a note to never watch the film with Izzy again. "I think she means like, she'll never let go of… the memory of him?"

"Well that's a shitty promise." She argued, "She should-"

She was interrupted with Jace walking in to the kitchen. Isabelle looked over her shoulder to him, "Hey, no joining. Girls night." She said to him.

Jace rolled his eyes, "Like I'd want to watch… that. I'm just getting something to eat."

"I made a casserole earlier." Isabelle suggested.

Jace paused for a second, "How about we order pizza?"

Isabelle glared at her brother, her eyes narrowed, "Was that a dig at my cooking?" She asked warningly.

"No… I just… want pizza." He smiled cheekily and went about trying to find the number for the pizza place.

"Are you even aloud to eat after your tooth op?" Izzy asked suspiciously. Jace merely shrugged in indifference.

The puppy chose that moment to wake up and pottered over to Jace, wagging it's tail happily. She circled round his feet for a bit before the sound of water hitting surface rung out across the room.

Jace groaned and grimaced down at the dog, picking her up and quickly running to open the kitchen door and place her on the floor.

Isabelle and Clary were in hysterics, laughing their heads off at him. They were still at it when Jace came back in, holding the pup out at arms length and then placed her on the floor, "Freaking monster." He mumbled.

"I know. Real piss-take isn't it?" Isabelle quipped, erupting another round of laughter from the girls.

Jace glared at them and proceeded to look for the pizzeria number.

When Clary had calmed down, she waved her Nokia up in the air. "Here, Jace," She stopped him, "I have it saved on my phone." She said, scrolling through her contacts. "What do you want?"

"Meateor, large." He called.

She turned to look at Izzy, "I'll have a Florentina."

Clary nodded and clicked on the number, listening to the rings until someone picked up.

"_Hello, Dominoes pizza." _The static, male voice crackled through.

"Hi, could I order two Florentina's, and a Meateor,please? Delivered."

"_Yeah sure, do you have an address?"_

She repeated to the man the address Isabelle gave her.

"_Okay, that all?" _He asked.

"Oh, and a margarita," She added, thinking of Simon, "Thank you."

"_No problem, see you in a few."_

"Yeah, okay." She said, "Love you."

Clary's eyes flew open and she threw a hand to cover her mouth, mortified. Her face instantly grew red with embarrassment. Jace and Isabelle were howling in laughter at her. She squeezed her eyes shut. She could hear the pizza guy laughing as well.

"_Love you too_." She heard him chuckle.

"Oh God, I'm _so _sorry." She said quickly, "… This is so embarrassing."

Pizza guy laughed once more, "_No worries. See you in ten minutes." _And then he hung up.

Clary threw her hands over her face and curled up into a ball. Jace athletically ran up to the sofa from behind and vaulted it so he landed sat down beside Clary, still laughing.

She flung a hand out at him and hit him on the arm. He didn't even flinch.

And, true to his word, there was a knock on the door almost exactly ten minutes later, announced loudly by a pre-mature bark from Dog. Isabelle and Jace both pushed Clary to go answer the door, eager to see the confrontation.

Clary rolled her eyes and got up to go answer the door. She squeezed her eyes shut before opening the large door.

She was expecting the usual acne-ridden, gangly teenager that usually ordered pizza, but what she got was the complete opposite.

He had broad shoulders, large, muscular arms and a sturdy chest. Wavy, black hair stuck out of his Dominoes visor and hung over his forehead in bangs.

The pizzeria shirt clung to his abs and Clary thought that he must be the only person in the world that could possibly look good in that outfit.

He smirked when he noticed her looking him up and down. Clary instantly shook herself out her thoughts and looked at pizza-guy in the eyes.

"So you must be my new lover?" He asked.

Clary blushed, "Yeah, sorry about that." He chuckled softly at how red her face was, "How much?" Clary asked, gesturing down to the four cardboard boxes.

"Oh, twenty dollars." He smiled.

Clary raised her brows, "Really?" She asked, surprised, "Only twenty?"

"No," Pizza guy said matter-of-factly, "But I'm giving you a discount." He said, winking at her.

Clary could feel her face getting hotter and she scrambled to get a twenty-dollar note out of her jeans.

He smiled kindly at her once again, "So I guess now we're a thing, I should probably know your name."

Clary laughed, "I'm Clary." She said, "You?"

He pointed to the nametag on his chest, "Sebastian."

Clary turned around when she heard the sound of claws pattering across the tile floor behind her. She saw Dog running happily towards Clary, wagging her tail. Jace was walking alongside the dog. "Clary what's taking you so-"

He was cut off when he came into line of view of Sebastian. Oddly, his expression changed and he moved closer to Clary.

"Jace, this is Sebastian." Clary thought she should introduce.

Jace nodded curtly, keeping eye contact with Sebastian. Clary frowned; usually he'd make a fuss about meeting someone new.

"How much?" Jace asked, digging out his wallet.

Clary noticed that Sebastian's expression had changed also, no longer the cheeky smile. "Thirty."

Jace slapped a couple of notes into the boy's hand and took the boxes off of him.

"Here's your receipt." Sebastian said, handing it to Clary. She noticed there was a phone number scrawled on it, "Maybe we could meet up some time."

Clary opened her mouth to answer when Jace spoke, "Bye Sebastian."

Sebastian nodded and backed out of the doorway, looking at Clary once more over his shoulder before jumping into his car and driving off.

When he was gone, Clary frowned up at Jace. "What's with you?" She asked.

"Nothing." Jace mumbled, "He just… gives off bad vibes."

Clary raised a brow, but before she could question further he opened his pizza box and turned to go back into the house.

Clary sighed to herself, shutting the door.

She heard a cardboard box fall on the floor and the sound of nails scratching at it, then munching.

"Hey! That's my pizza." She heard Jace call to the puppy, "Freaking monster."

Clary rolled her eyes and laughed.

* * *

><p><strong>Please review - this took like a week to write. 7000 words, pretty please? <strong>

**Should be going to Iceland next chapter (if all goes correctly). **

**I did an extra long chapter for you cause I haven't updated in so long. And because of the 300 reviews! **

**Ps. Those unfortunate, non-Scooby Doo fans, sorry I keep referencing. But basically, scrappy Doo is Scooby Doo's nephew and Scooby Dumb is his dumb cousin. Yes, I know it's sad how I know about this stuff. But this shit was like a drug to me when I was younger.**

* * *

><p><strong>I'm really sorry shoutouts are going to be pretty short because internet is v slow and it's pretty late at night too. So sorry :(<strong>

**Guests (**Thank you all for the review!**), Icankickurbutt (**N'aw, cheers – glad you found it funny x**), MysticWishes (**Thanks for you Valentine advise – I'm taking it up, so thank you so much! Haha, glad you liked it x) **), Leah.J.l (**Thank's for reviewing!Xx**), Demonpoxjohnnyboy (**Haha, Glad you liked it!x**), ipearlmusicfash (**N'aw, thanks a lot. Your review made me smile a lot Xx**), TheMortalBookLover, (**Ahah, glad you liked the McFlurf. ;)**), Riley207 (**Oh my gosh, that's awful. I hate the dentist with a passion :P **), don't-hate-clace (**Really? Thank you so much :) Your review made me really happy Xxx**), kitkatsaymeow (**Yay! Someone get's it! I'm glad you noticed – cause that's exactly what I was aiming for, some of the fics on this site are really cliché, I'm trying hard to get out and make it a bit more real. So thanks Xx**), I'm not u** **(**Actually, funnily enough, he went to the same school as me. He's a lot older than me. But there was this reading program where older years would come help the younger years with their reading if they were bad at it (which I was because I'm dyslexic) and Jamie was my reading mentor. We were actually p close. Had a handshake and everything. He was like my older year buddy. Guess where I got the idea for their detention from in the story, ahah.**), charatersaremorethanfriends (**Ahah, thanks! I added some more McFlurf for ya Xx**), Frazil-Silver (**Ahah, really? No way. That makes me so happy. And I completely agree about Jon, loads of people were asking for him back though so I thought I would make it an option. But more people want Valentine to become better, so thank you for the input J**), Leah** **(**Aww, that's so much more flattering than you might think. Thank you so much – I'm glad you found the last chapter funny Xx**), JakuraAngel (**Cheers! Thanks for reviewing x**) (**aww, how nice of you to name your pen name after me. Your so sweet. Ahah, jokes. Haha, glad you found it funny – maybe I'l get some more loopy Jace in later ;) **), Jling (**Aw, cheers, thanks for reviewing Xx**), ArtDrunky (**Really? Aw, thanks. Yeah, sorry I didn't update so fast this time. Thanks for reviewing J Xx**), Monkeygirl1425, (**Ahah, glad you liked it – thanks for reviewing x**), NCISfanx (**Cheers, and thanks – you too. Thanks for the review**), ishipwessa (**N'aw, cheers. I really appreciate it :)**), lolita Is fandom crazy, ( **Thanks for reviewing X**), MaxLightwoodLivesOn (**Thanks :) And yeah, skiing's great thanks. He he, I'm happy you liked the last chapter. Happy New year to you too :P, I'm glad you like the version of Jace, if you think I need to change something with him, let me know X**), tspiker0713 (**Glad you liked it – thanks for reviewing! X**), goat99 (**Haha, that's good. Thanks for the review – im happy your liking the story :) x**), Freylovesfandoms (**Are you called Freya by any chance (I'm guessing from your pen name)? That's my name too. Sorry, weird question. Glad you found chap 10 funny! Thanks for the review X**), mortallovergirl (**Rolling on the floor? Ahha! Gee, thanks. Thank you! Thanks for the review! X**), ClaceandPeeniss4eva (**Seriously? Thank you so much! Ahah, glad you liked it! Xx**), GingerNinjaaa (**Neither – I love them all! Thanks for the review Xx**), taang-shipper (**haha, glad you liked it :) Xx**), Arelia Miles (**Heyy! Sorry I can't reply to your PM, and I can't send you my drawing – really got not a lot of wifi. Like I don't even know if this update will work. Ikr! 300 reviews!? What the? FOUR TEETH? What! That sounds so painful. At four different times… My god. But icecream for dinner sounds p good ;) Ahah, satan's minions – so true. Hope he feels like he has to pee but never does…? Im worried about you. Truly. I LOVED TOM AND JERRY! But I did love Scooby doo more. Ahah, I agree – why don't they just get married. I really want to ride in a wheelchair. Just once. Ahah, I feel you, I feel you  
>(about the books). Haha, glad you liked it. I thought I'd go for the Valentine one because I felt it fit more with the story, plus I couldn't really think of a good way for Jon to come back. I'll PM you when I get back to England :) Xx<strong>), finlizabeth123 (<strong>Thanks for reviewing! X**), OMFG (**Yeah – I might do a sequel. Who knows – depends what people think about it, thanks for suggesting itJ x**), S.L (**Really? Thank you. If you see anything wrong with any of the characters and the way I portray them, please let me know :)**), LindsayHonacker (**Hahah, happy you found it funny. I was really worried that It wasn't funny and people would be like… what are you doing? So thanks! Xxx**), ashnicatthelibrary, (**Omg, me too, like they scared me so much. Really sorry, but more people wanted a nice Valentine – but thank you for letting me know anyway, thank you so much! Xxx**), XPSkyloverXP (**I read it and… omg, it's amazing. Far higher than my standard, how does It remind you of this fic? That's v flattering – cheers :) Xxx**), RunningWithTheRiptide (**Yeah – I was thinking I might add more loopy Jace at some point. People seemed to like it and I had _loads_ of fun writing it – if you have any suggestion, that would be uber helpful – thanks for reviewing :P X**), FuzzyWuzzyBizzyBuzzyBee (** :) Yay! I'm glad you liked it! Aw, thanks – thanks for the review x**), HPnarnia1 (**Cheers for the suggestions – I'll see what pans out. Tbh, I don't really have a plan for this story, it just…happens. But loads of people liked Valentine getting nicer – I'm really sorry. But maybe Jon will come back anyway – who knows? Xx**), RAVANGE5EVA (**Me too! But we'll have to wait my friend. Good things come to those that wait… is bull but yeah, it will come. Xx**)**


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